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 [...]

In 2009, I was diagnosed with kidney failure. My condition deteriorated so quickly that I was life-flighted and placed in a medically induced coma for 10 days. When I woke up, I had to relearn how to walk and soon began dialysis. My kidneys briefly recovered, but in 2014 they failed again. After spending four years navigating the transplant waitlist, I was fortunate enough to receive a kidney in October 2018 at the University of Utah Hospital. I was able to move forward with transplantation only because I had Medicare during dialysis and later had access to my spouse’s employer-sponsored [...]

As a caregiver for my late father-in-law on dialysis – the only treatment for kidney failure outside of a transplant – I saw firsthand how taxing kidney disease can be. My wife, a nurse, handled his home dialysis treatments day after day. I helped wherever I could – driving him to appointments, shaving him when he could no longer manage, and offering the emotional support both he and my wife needed. Dialysis didn’t just affect him. It shaped our entire family’s life. We gave everything to help him stay home, stay comfortable, and maintain his dignity. Thankfully, he had sufficient [...]

To the Editor: Discovering I had End-Stage Renal Disease, or kidney failure, was one of the most shocking days of my life. I was a high school wrestler and felt healthy. I had recently become a proud godfather, cheering on my niece at her volleyball and softball games. I never thought I would have to confront a chronic condition. I wouldn’t be alive today without dialysis, a treatment that filters my blood several times a week. Dialysis is exhausting, but the financial burden can be just as draining. I’m fortunate to work for a company that allows me to adjust [...]