I was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2006. I started dialysis immediately and received my first kidney transplant just 18 months later. That kidney gave me 13 years – years I spent working, living fully, and maintaining my health. Then, in 2020, my kidney failed. I returned to dialysis for five and a half years before receiving my second transplant this past February. Throughout my second period on dialysis, I continued working and maintained private insurance through my employer. However, a recent Supreme Court decision made it possible for insurers to push dialysis patients off their private coverage prematurely, causing [...]

As someone who has been on dialysis for over two decades, I know that access to consistent, affordable care is not optional; it's life or death. Kidney disease almost cost me my life. I spend over a month in the hospital when I was first diagnosed, and dialysis is what allowed me to rebuild my strength and survive. A previous kidney transplant eventually failed, and today I'm back on dialysis and at the top of Colorado's transplant list. Dialysis takes a massive physical and mental toll. Some days, simply getting through treatment feels like a full-time job. Despite the challenges, [...]

Since coming to Congress, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, has worked across party lines to help our community. I hope she’ll do so again by helping ensure that Washington’s kidney disease patients, of which I am one, don’t go into financial ruin. After a recent Supreme Court ruling, private insurance companies are now able to push dialysis patients off their coverage and onto Medicare prematurely. Previously, if someone had private insurance when they got diagnosed with kidney failure and started dialysis, they could keep their full coverage for up to 30 months. This ensured that patients could focus on starting [...]