I never imagined that before my 30th birthday, I would be diagnosed with kidney failure. But on Oct. 4, 2023, during my first year as an English teacher, that
became my reality.
I started dialysis at a clinic before transitioning to home hemodialysis. I’ve had to stop teaching, restructure my life around treatment and navigate a healthcare system I was unprepared for. When I was diagnosed, I didn’t yet have insurance through my job .I received temporary disability for a few months before being pressured to resign from a first-year contract with no job protections. No one told me I had legal rights that could have protected me.
Because I was new to my job, I never got to rely on the 30-month private insurance protection that has historically provided dialysis patients time before transitioning to Medicaid. But I’ve watched others who did, and that buffer made an enormous difference. If I had been teaching even a year longer, I would have counted on that same protection.
A recent Supreme Court ruling now allows insurers to push patients off private coverage before that 30-month window closes. The Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act would restore that safeguard. I urge Rep. Bobby Scott and Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine to support it. No one facing a life-threatening diagnosis should also have to fight their insurer.
To lawmakers, I simply ask that they put themselves in the patient’s shoes. These are people’s lives.
Amber Gardner, Hampton, Virginia
