Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) and other Republican senators have sent a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra sounding the alarm about the department’s proposal to allocate organ transplants “fairly” and based on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, Breitbart News has obtained exclusively.
Senators Schmitt, Cindy Hyde Smith (R-MS), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Mike Lee (R-UT) and John Kennedy (R-LA) sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Becerra regarding the Expanded Organ Transplant Access (IOTA) model announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in May.
Vice President Kamala Harris attends the swearing-in ceremony for Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) and his wife, Jamie Schmitt (center), in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. (Jacqueline Martin/The Associated Press)
“The organ transplant industry, like any other part of society, is not immune to racial inequality,” Becerra said. I have written In a May statement, the Biden-Harris Administration said, “Black Americans disproportionately suffer from life-threatening kidney disease yet receive underrepresented rates of kidney transplants. The Biden-Harris Administration is taking concrete steps to eliminate racial bias in calculating wait times and eradicate unfair trade practices and inequities in the transplant process.”
Senate Republicans believe the proposal is “the latest in a series of reckless attempts to impose ‘equity’ and divisive DEI policies on our health care system.” They explained how the proposal would undermine public trust in the transplant system:
Under the proposed model announced through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, hospitals could
Payments are based on an annual score determined by three factors: transplant volume, organ acceptance rate, and post-transplant outcomes. A successful kidney transplant counts as one point, except for transplants given to “low-income” patients, which count as 1.2 points.This “health equity adjustment” creates perverse incentives to prioritize transplants, It is determined by arbitrary income levels, not clinical need. Organ allocation must adhere to the principle of equal treatment for all patients and ensure that certain individuals are not preferred over others based on non-medical criteria. Furthermore, public trust in the transplant system will be eroded if people come to believe that allocation decisions are made based on social and political factors rather than medical need.
IOTA Proposal Factsheet Said “Access to organ transplants can vary by race, ethnicity, disability, socioeconomic status, and other factors.”
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Claims:
For example, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) annual data report, 32% of people on the waitlist in 2021 were African American, but only 13.5% of living donor transplant recipients were African American. Whites made up 35.8% of the waitlist and 61.8% of living donor transplant recipients.
Senate Republicans wrote that the department is using income-based standards to address alleged racial discrimination that doesn’t exist.
The justification for the Ministry of Health’s actions and its over-reliance on DEI arguments goes beyond concern. The Ministry of Health justifies the incorporation of “health equity adjustments” as a means to remove any suspicion of racial bias in the transplant process, when there is no clear evidence that such bias exists. Using income as a proxy for race goes against the very foundations of medical ethics, which is to ensure that everyone has equal access to care based on need and urgency.
Proposals such as the IOTA model only satisfy the appetites of political activists, far from helping actual patients. We need a health care system that provides high-quality, affordable care to families and individuals. Rather than addressing the systemic issues that make health care unaffordable for millions of Americans, the current administration seems fixated on virtue-signaling “fairness” over the real needs of patients.
“National health care is the latest arena for Biden and the Democratic Party to inject divisive DEI policies. Critical medical procedures like kidney transplants should not be measured on a 1:1 scale, and doctors and surgeons should not be required to consider the equity of a situation before operating on a patient. There is no room for DEI in the operating room,” Schmidt said in a written statement to Breitbart News.
Increasing Access to Organ Transplants (IOTA) Model Letter by Breitbart News On Scribd
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter. Sean Moran 3.
