In 2020, COVID-19 caused my kidneys to fail. I spent five months in the hospital, four of them on a ventilator, and my wife was called and told to consider pulling
the plug and letting me go. I survived, spent two years on peritoneal dialysis, and eventually received a lifesaving kidney transplant in 2023.
Living through kidney failure opened my eyes to the fact that too many people don’t know what help and resources are available to them, and that’s because no one tells them. That has to change, and so does the way we support patients while they’re on dialysis.
Dialysis keeps you alive, but it is grueling. Patients deserve access to the newest therapies that can make treatment safer and more effective. They need access to medications that treat anemia, prevent infections, and reduce phosphorus buildup, as well as emerging drugs that could help reduce antibodies and make transplants more accessible to those who need them most. These innovations exist or are on the horizon, but the current Medicare payment system creates barriers that keep them out of reach for far too many patients.
That’s why I urge Rep. French Hill and Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton to support the Kidney Care Access Protection Act. This bipartisan bill would modernize Medicare’s dialysis payment system and create a pathway for patients to access these innovative treatments.
Kidney disease can happen to anyone. When it does, patients deserve the best care available.
Tony McDaniel, North Little Rock, Arkansas
