My husband Greg was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease in 2006. He spent nearly seven years on dialysis before receiving a kidney transplant in 2013. For
over a decade, that transplant gave him his life back. Then, in late 2023, complications from COVID caused his transplant to fail, and in October 2024, he returned to dialysis.
The second time has been far harder — not because anything is different, but because we already know this fight is physically, emotionally and financially draining.
When Greg was first diagnosed, we had private insurance. We received a letter warning us that we were about to hit our coverage cap and lose it. We were terrified. Fortunately, protections changed before that happened, and we were able to transition to Medicare on our own terms. Not everyone is so fortunate.
A recent Supreme Court ruling now allows private insurers to push dialysis patients off their coverage before the traditional 30-month protection period ends. For a newly diagnosed patient, losing that coverage early can mean crushing costs and disrupted care.
This is a matter of life and death, and no insurance company with no connection to these patients should have the power to make that decision. That’s why I’m urging Rep. Austin Scott and Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to support the Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act. This bipartisan bill would allow patients to keep that 30-month buffer and provide them the time and stability they deserve.
Kelda Cubit, Macon, Georgia
