Trump Admin Ends Biden’s Organ-Transplant-By-Race Policy

In this The Federalist article, Breccan F. Thies reports that the Trump administration has ended a Biden-era organ transplant policy that critics say inserted racial “equity” considerations into kidney transplant access.

• CMS published a final rule for the Increasing Organ Transplant Access model, a mandatory six-year program intended to expand access to kidney transplants for patients with end-stage renal disease.
• The article says the Biden administration’s version of the rule required participating hospitals to consider race, ethnicity, and “equity” in transplant-related decision-making.
• The Trump CMS rule states that allocation and transplantation decisions should be based on objective, measurable medical criteria through the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network framework.
• America First Legal and other commenters argued that transplant allocation should remain grounded in medical need rather than race-based or equity-based preferences.
• AFL said the Biden policy encouraged hospitals to identify racial disparities, create Health Equity Plans, conduct resource-gap analyses, and implement targeted interventions for selected populations.
• The article notes that Biden officials described those Health Equity Plans as voluntary, while AFL argued they were embedded into the IOTA model in practice.
• AFL attorney Megan Redshaw praised CMS for removing the framework, saying life-saving transplant decisions should be guided by clinical urgency and medical criteria.
• The article also criticizes the Biden rule’s broader payment structure, arguing that tying institutional revenue to transplant volume could incentivize aggressive procurement and transplant practices.
• Thies frames the rule as part of a broader Biden-era racial equity agenda across federal programs, including health care, contracting, housing, and other areas.

Read the full story: https://thefederalist.com/2026/06/03/trump-admin-ends-bidens-organ-transplant-by-race-policy/