About Us
The Illinois Kidney Care Alliance (IKCA) is a coalition of organizations, community groups and advocates, health professionals, and businesses from across Illinois banding together to ensure that patients’ needs come first.
With over 30,000 dialysis and transplant patients in Illinois, the well-being of patients and their families is our top concern. IKCA supports and helps craft public policy that protects those with end-stage renal disease (ESRD).
Currently, more than 650,000 Americans suffer from kidney failure. Of these, about 70 percent are on dialysis, while the rest are able to survive with a functioning kidney transplant. The incidence rate of ESRD is expected to rise in the U.S. in over the next decade – and is higher among African-Americans, Latinos and people of color than among whites.
Kidney disease in its early stages often has no symptoms and therefore remains undetected until it has reached an advanced stage. For this reason, some call it a “silent disease.” It kills more people than breast or prostate cancer in the U.S. every year, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
