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 dialysis and improving their health rather than dealing with the stress of changing insurance. That buffer is now at risk.
I encourage Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and members of Congress, including Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez, to support the Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act. This bill ensures patients can maintain full private coverage for that critical 30-month period, and if passed, will help a lot of vulnerable patients have peace of mind during a very hard time in their lives.
Adrian Miller, Vancouver, Washington
