A recent Supreme Court decision allows private insurers to push new dialysis patients — those who take a frequent treatment for kidney failure to survive — off their plans they’ve worked hard to keep. It’s a direct assault on the lives of dialysis patients across America. Forcing patients off their private insurance
immediately after diagnosis — often within months — is unjust.
I’ve lived on dialysis for over four years, endured the pain of needles tearing through my skin twice daily, and fought to keep my dignity in a system that often prioritizes profits over people. I’ve been lucky; I served this country and have good healthcare coverage with the Veterans Affairs. But many are losing private insurance coverage, and they’re left to pay with the 20% that Medicare doesn’t cover. It’s a crushing financial burden that jeopardizes their access to lifesaving treatments and, crucially, their standing on transplant lists.
We are not statistics or profit centers. We are mothers, fathers, veterans, neighbors — human beings demanding the right to life, which means the right to healthcare. Congressman Herb Conaway Jr. should cosponsor and help pass the Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act. This bipartisan bill would stop insurers from pushing vulnerable patients into chaos and ensure that fewer dialysis patients are forced to bear the heavy burden of unnecessary financial distress.
C. Andre Daniels, Westampton, New Jersey
