Since coming to Congress last year, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has worked across party lines to help our community. I hope she’ll do so again by working to ensure that Washington’s kidney disease patients, of which I am one, can have access to proper insurance.
After a Supreme Court ruling, private insurance companies may be able to weaken what they cover for dialysis patients. 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 before they, by law, must switch to Medicare. That buffer ensured that patients could focus on starting dialysis and improving their health rather than dealing with the stress of changing insurance.
I encourage members of Congress, including Perez, to understand what dialysis patients are going through, and ultimately to pass 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.
