MITCHELLVILLE, Md. - The Washington, D.C., area leads the nation in kidney disease, with more than 700,000 kidney patients. And nationwide, the number of people waiting for a kidney transplant has ballooned, as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity rates continue growing. But because the number of transplants being made has grown at a much slower rate, the National Kidney Foundation is proposing ways to end the wait -- but it might involve what some say is paying for organs.

Looking over his pile of bills from last year, Darryl Ingram knows it was all worth it.

"It's a no-brainer for me," he said. "It's nothing my mom wouldn't have done for me."

Those bills are from the kidney he donated to his mother, Mary, last September. Ingram's costs added up to more than $8,000, much of it for travel and accommodations.

The National Kidney Foundation is hoping to save donors and recipients from bearing those costs. Under its "End the Wait" initiative, any expenses borne by the donor would be covered by insurance, including lost wages, child care or added hospital expenses. For deceased donors, the foundation suggests covering funeral costs for the donor's family.

» NKF's End the Wait initiative

» Gov't Organ Donor Site

"We think there is enough money being spent in the system right now to cover all of these things. For instance, dialysis costs $71,000 a year. The care of a transplant recipient costs $17,000," said John Davis, CEO of the National Kidney Foundation.

The idea is to lessen the time dialysis patients wait for a kidney. Georgetown University medical ethics professor Robert Veatch says society should be careful about how people are compensated for donating organs -- but to save lives, it might be worth a try.

"If you treat everybody equally and give everybody the same amount in lieu of lost wages, that's really just paying people a few thousand dollars," he argued.

Akira Loring hasn't let the last seven years of at-home dialysis slow her down. But she knows life could be better with a new kidney.

"There's perfectly good organs going to waste that have never been used, and nowadays we waste so many things -- why waste a life that you could save?" Loring asked.

The Kidney Foundation is working with Congress to pass laws that would implement parts of the "End the Wait" program, including a bill that would give donors of any life-saving organ a tax credit of up to $5,000 for costs related to the transplant.

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