As a dialysis patient, one-time kidney transplant recipient, and a dialysis tech of 12 years, I’ve seen kidney care from just about every angle. I was fortunate to have insurance through my job which meant I didn’t have to deal with the out-of-pocket costs and hassle that sometimes come with Medicare, but that’s not true for everyone. Instead, they rely only on Medicare, and if it doesn’t cover certain costs, they can get stuck with a huge bill. Lawmakers can help change that by passing bills like the Jack Reynolds Memorial Medigap Expansion Act, which would open Medigap coverage to [...]

Dear Editor:   This December marks three years in my battle with kidney disease. My kidney failure diagnosis was hard to pin down, and without my husband, I am not sure I would still be here. My diagnosis came with a lot of things you’d expect: many hours spent in doctors’ offices and at dialysis treatment centers. What I didn’t know is that this diagnosis would also eventually put me in the hospital, with medical bills racking up the entire time  Of course, dialysis alone is expensive, especially when patients must pay for any costs that Medicare doesn’t cover. And, for many dialysis [...]

Since I started dialysis in 2018, I’ve been lucky to have coverage that supplements Medicare and helps to keep my costs down. Even with that added coverage, though, I’ve noticed it is tough to afford all of the medicines I need. For patients without the additional coverage I have, that cost is even higher. When Medicare doesn’t pay for medication or dialysis treatment. That money comes out of their pocket, and the financial burden is just too much for some patients to take on. For the many dialysis patients like me with diabetes, the problem is even bigger because of [...]

I’ve lived on dialysis for 22 years, but there was a time when my kidney disease almost took my life. Through dialysis and a failed kidney transplant, though, I’ve done my best to stay upbeat and am excited to get another transplant kidney soon, hopefully. While it’s been a tough road, I’ve at least had the coverage I need to pay for my treatments. A lot of patients I’ve met only have Medicare, which doesn’t always cover their treatments and medications. Instead, they have to pay out-of-pocket costs as high as 20% of the cost of their treatments. Congress can [...]

It’s been 34 years since my brother donated his kidney to me and changed my life for the better. Now, we do what we can to support dialysis patients in our area and help people better understand just what challenges patients face every single day. For a lot of them, it all comes back to coverage. As a transplant recipient, it’s a major problem that I’ve experienced firsthand. Three years after my transplant, I lost the coverage I had and needed to turn to other plans that came with big out-of-pocket costs. Other patients across the country are in the [...]

Starting dialysis 12 years ago at 28 completely changed my life. I had to begin going to a clinic for the hours-long treatments that dialysis involves, and the treatments, as well as their effects, forced me to end my career as an EMT. It was a difficult adjustment to make, but I’ve at least been fortunate enough to have supplemental insurance coverage through my wife’s work that helps to cover the cost of my treatments. Without that additional coverage, we’d have to find a way to make up for the 20 percent of the cost Medicare doesn’t pay for. Under [...]

In 2004 my dad had his first dialysis treatment after flatlining from a heart procedure. We were not sure he would make it through the night as his organs were shutting down, but we were told that dialysis would help and at the time, we wanted to just do whatever was needed to save him. When my dad left the hospital, we were told that his kidneys would require dialysis in the future and his doctors would monitor him. Fast-forward to 2007, and we were informed that my dad would require dialysis three days a week for four hours at [...]

Something felt a little off after my daughter was born. I started feeling more exhausted each day after work, and at one point one of my elementary school students even pointed out that I didn’t look well. I had always been perfectly healthy, so I never expected that I’d be diagnosed with kidney disease. But, after a referral to Johns Hopkins for care, doctors started me on dialysis right away. That’s when my long, difficult road with kidney disease began. Shortly after starting dialysis treatments – despite receiving the best care possible – I fell into a 31-day coma that [...]