Because of life-threatening kidney disease, dialysis patients and their families are forced off coverage they paid for.
Prevent that tragedy.
37 MILLION
Americans Have Kidney Disease
1 in 7
American Adults Are Affected By Kidney Disease
+
Background
800K +
Americans Have End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD)
69
Of People With ESRD Must Rely On Dialysis. A Kidney Transplant, However, Is The Ideal Treatment.
%
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DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT OF ESRD ON PATIENTS OF COLOR
African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians all face an increased risk of kidney failure, compared with White Americans:
x3
Since 2000, the number of Hispanic, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and Asian people with kidney failure has more than tripled in each race/ethnicity group.
-
Black Americans are 4 times more likely to develop kidney failure.
-
Americans of Hispanic ethnicity are 2 times more likely to develop kidney failure.
-
Native Americans are 2 times more likely to develop kidney failure.
-
Asian Americans are 1.4 times more likely to develop kidney failure.
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DIALYSIS TREATMENT
3 Times A Week
4 Hours Per Treatment
12 Hours
a Week
Spent Receiving Treatment
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The Challenge
Lives Depend On It
Dialysis becomes a necessary, but difficult part of life for ESRD patients that they balance along with life’s other responsibilities like work and family.
1972
Congress changed the Social Security Act to provide comprehensive medical coverage to Americans diagnosed with kidney failure under Medicare – regardless of their age. About 10 years later, when Congress saw employer groups start to change their benefit plans to push their enrollees with ESRD onto Medicare because of this entitlement, Congress amended the Medicare Secondary Payer Act to that ensure that dialysis patients could stay on their employer health plan for a period of time (now up to 30 months) after diagnosis of ESRD before switching to Medicare.
Today
BUT, the Supreme Court recently ruled employer health plans can single out outpatient dialysis, severely limiting or altogether eliminating coverage. This means these plans can now discriminate against patients with kidney failure.
Consequences
Employees who depend on accessing life-sustaining treatment through their employer health plan, which they’ve paid into for years, instead are forced into Medicare earlier than they may have chosen. This impacts their entire family, spouse and kids.
This is an unintended consequence of the Supreme Court decision — burdening hard working families struggling with a life-threatening illness.
“Being a dialysis patient, it devastates you. Having health insurance, you work all your life for, and when you have children, they need to go to the doctors as well. So why should you be stripped of health insurance when you worked hard for it? And this is something that you need. You have to go get your eyes checked, you need your teeth done, not just to be on a machine, even though this machine is helping you get through your life. Health insurance is most important.”
- Windy Edwards, Former Dialysis Patient
Patient Story
“Dialysis is hard. It’s extremely hard physically, mentally, emotionally - and compounding that with the financial side of things, I try my best to empathize. But I think it’s our responsibility as healthcare professionals to do everything we can to make sure that this process is as seamless as it needs to be for them.”
- Braxton, Dialysis Nurse
Nurse Story
We Need to Act Now
The Solution
Tell Congress to pass the Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act, a bipartisan bill to prevent discrimination against dialysis patients and their families.
To restore protections for dialysis patients, so an employer health plan cannot discriminate against patients by carving out or limiting coverage for dialysis in an effort to force patients into Medicare earlier than they choose.
We’re calling on Congress to pass the bipartisan Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act
We must restore the long-standing protections for dialysis patients. Tell Congress to act now.
This is a straightforward, bipartisan issue
News
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