At just 25 years old, I was diagnosed with renal failure caused by systemic lupus and immediately began dialysis. I was pregnant, undergoing chemotherapy and fighting for my life. The last thing I should have had to worry about was losing my health insurance. But I was terrified. My private insurance through Blue Cross BlueShield was the only thing standing between my family and financial ruin. My husband and I even discussed divorcing on paper just to protect him from bankruptcy. No one facing a life-threatening diagnosis should ever have to consider something like that. After 14 months of dialysis, [...]

After 18 years on dialysis and nearly four years post-transplant, I have seen firsthand what happens when dialysis patients don’t have the insurance protections they need. As a longtime patient advocate, I’ve watched others struggle through a system that too often pulls the rug out from under people at their most vulnerable. Historically, there’s been legal protections allowing dialysis patients to stay on their private insurance for 30 months before switching to Medicare. That protection was a lifeline. It gave patients a real window to stabilize, navigate their treatment, and potentially receive a transplant before being forced onto Medicare. Without [...]