Earlier this week, I went to Washington D.C. with the National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match. I was part of a group of stem cell/marrow recipients, donors, couriers and advocates which met with legislators to ask them to support The Life Saving Leave Act (H.R. 3024). So that once matched donors get the call to donate, they can say yes without fear of losing their job.
The Facts:
• Bone marrow or blood stem cell transplant is often the only or last treatment option that doctors consider saving the life of a patient fighting blood cancer or blood disorder.
• 70% of patients who need a transplant do not have a fully matched donor in their family and must rely on a stranger to donate life-saving marrow or blood stem cells.
• When donors join the Registry, they are committing to save the life of a stranger by donating their cells. This donor may be a searching patient’s only chance at life.
• For many patients and their families, their only hope is that NMDP/Be The Match find’s a donor who can say “yes.”
• Donors who match with a searching patient are asked to spend approximately 40 hours away from work, spread over several weeks, in preparation to donate cells. Once they get the call to save a life, they must be able to say yes without fear of losing their job.
The problem and the stakes:
• Currently, there is no national donor job protection for bone marrow or blood stem cell donors, like there is for other organ donors.
• 37 states protect some jobs for donors who are giving life-saving cells − but not all.
• Only 1 in 10 donors reside in the same state as the searching patient.
• Searching patients must rely on a patchwork of state laws hoping their matched donor has job protection.
• Half of the people on the registry DO NOT DONATE when called. Differences in availability
exacerbate disparity. For example, Black and African American populations say yes 28% of the
time, while white and Caucasian populations say yes 64% of the time.
• Studies show that younger donors, between the ages of 18-40, provide better long-term
survival rates for patients. These ideal donors are also the least likely to have time away from
work.
• Patients everywhere are at risk of not receiving treatment if their donor happens to live in a state that lacks job protection. It is devastating that someone might not be able to donate their cells because it could mean losing their job.
A National Solution:
• A national donor job protection law, the Life Saving Leave Act (H.R. 3024), will allow up to 40 hours of non-consecutive unpaid leave for cell donors.
• This legislation would close the loophole under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and extend job protection for those donating cells, like job protection other organ donors already receive.
• The legislation would not expand to businesses that are not currently subject to the FMLA.
• Donor job protection provides all donors and employers with an administratively simple solution AND it will save the life of a searching patient.
The Life Saving Leave Act (H.R. 3024) is:
• Low-Cost: According to data, donor job protection would have little to no fiscal impact on
employers or the government.
• Fair: Donor job protection creates parity with those who donate other organs.
• Uniform: A nationwide law affords patients uniform and equal access to transplant regardless
of where their donor lives or works.
The bottom line: Once matched donors get the call, they must be able to say yes without fear of losing their job. For the patient, the stakes are their life. Let your legislator know you want to protect donor jobs to save more lives.
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