We Americans with kidney failure must accept the fact that we will be in medical debt for the rest of our lives. To pay for dialysis treatment, some patients keep working and use private insurance. Others live in states that supplement the other 20%. For me, although I have my husband’s private insurance, we still owe thousands of dollars out-of-pocket. I was a single mom when I started dialysis ten years ago, and money has always been tight. I have not been able to pay much more than the minimum payments on my medical debt. For patients just beginning dialysis, [...]

Kidney failure changed the course of my life. I began dialysis, the exhausting treatment kidney failure patients need to survive, three months pregnant with my son. I received a kidney transplant, which ultimately failed, and I have been on dialysis for a total of nine-and-a-half years. It’s been an arduous journey. Dialysis costs upwards of $100,000 per year, so most patients rely on some combination of Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance and charity. I began dialysis as a young adult, so I needed Medicaid immediately, but many others begin with employer-provided private insurance. As I’ve learned over the course of my [...]

Dear Editor, When I served as my grandfather's caregiver during his dialysis treatments, the most frustrating challenge was the difficulty we faced dealing with Medicare. Slow payments and limited access to services were all too common for us, but thankfully we had access to supplemental insurance that helped cover costs. For many dialysis patients, private insurance plays an important role in providing access to care, either as supplemental insurance like my grandfather had, or as a patient's primary insurer in the early days of treatment. For years, patients were able to remain fully covered by private health insurance for 30 [...]

When I began dialysis, I took advantage of Medicare, private insurance and charity funding to pay for my treatment. However, I often speak to other patients who do not have access to supplemental insurance and end up being stuck paying the 20% that Medicare does not cover. Paying out-of-pocket for dialysis is simply impossible for most Americans. For years, Marylanders on dialysis could keep their private insurance for 30 months after their diagnosis, which allows them wider treatment options while adjusting to their new normal. However, a recent Supreme Court decision may allow private insurance companies to single out dialysis [...]

Dear Editor: How would you feel if your life-saving medical treatment was out of reach? Well, a recent Supreme Court decision allows private insurance companies to put new dialysis patients in a difficult position by severely limiting coverage in the first 30 months of treatment, even though patients have long been guaranteed full coverage within that time. Congress must act, for the very survival of kidney care in America is at stake. As a dialysis patient myself, I know how difficult paying for treatment can be. In California, I am covered by Medicare, with MediCal covering the 20 percent of [...]