Renal Transplantation in Black Americans

Despite remarkable social changes in the United States during the past century, issues related to race and ethnic background continue to permeate public discourse regarding health care.1,2 The influence of race on the delivery of care for end-stage renal disease remains especially controversial because of two seemingly unrelated factors. First, the incidence of kidney failure among black Americans is disproportionately high, resulting in the demographic anomaly of black overrepresentation in the population with end-stage renal disease. Second, passage of the Social Security Amendments of 1972 entitled virtually all people in the United States with end-stage renal disease to Medicare-funded . . .