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Monsey, NY - Outrage As Transplant Patient, Kicked Off Medicare |
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Monsey NY - Brocha Dov last month celebrated the third anniversary of the kidney transplant that freed her from the grueling regime of dialysis three times a week and gave her life back to her.
But just days later, she got a letter that she fears threatened to take away the very life that the transplanted organ has allowed her to enjoy.
The letter from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid informed her that now that she had reached the third anniversary of her transplant, she was no longer eligible for insurance.
"I take 48 pills every day," she said. "How can I pay for that? I can't."
Dov, 63, has to wait 13 months before she turns 65 and qualifies for Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly.
Now she is among an estimated 60,000 people nationwide who have kidney transplants -paid for by Medicare -who are then cut off from the program with few options for continuing care.
"If she goes a year without the medication, she'll lose the kidney, and then she'll have to go on dialysis again," said her husband, Nachman Dov, a retired garment district worker. "That will cost the government more than $200,000 a year. What sense does that make?"
None, says Paul Precht, spokesman for the Medicare Rights Center, a nationwide advocacy group.
"It's an irrational policy," he said. "Just another symptom of a fractured and irrational health care system."
Brocha Dov, like everyone who needs dialysis, automatically qualified for Medicare to enable her to pay for the lifesaving, and expensive, treatment. It cost $200,000 for a year of dialysis.
When she was lucky enough to get a donated organ a year later, the federal program also paid the estimated $200,000 cost of the transplant and the estimated $25,000 yearly since for anti-rejection drugs and other medication.
"The transplant, it was like a miracle," said Dov, who has five children, 38 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. "I don't even want to think about what would happen if I lost it."
She has looked into Medicaid, a program for the poor and sick, but was told that she wouldn't qualify.
Many kidney transplant patients find themselves in the same limbo.
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Read Comments (6) — Post Yours »
1
May 11, 2008 at 09:30 AM Anonymous Says:
This is an alte maisa and makes absolutely no sense. Transplant patients and their advocacy groups have been lobbying for years to change the illogical law, using the financial arguments in this article (which are correct).
Of course, logic has no sway in convincing politicians.
Hashem yerachem.
2
May 11, 2008 at 12:06 PM blondi Says:
let her complain of psych issues, paranoia, panic attacks and such, maybe then she can get medicaid
3
May 11, 2008 at 03:23 PM Charlie Hall Says:
This shows the need for universal access to health care. Israel has it -- and a longer life expectancy in the United States despite a much lower per capita GDP.
4
May 11, 2008 at 07:41 PM Renee Says:
The US ranks #33 in life expectancy and #44 in infant mortality. Where are our priorities?
5
May 11, 2008 at 08:24 PM Anonymous Says:
Israel does indeed have universal health care. Problem is, when one becomes gravely ill, they come here!! Guess why! I, for one, have no interest in waiting in line for a procedure one has to wait ages for in all countries using universal health care, ie: Israel, Canada, England, etc. My mother-in-law, while at her oncologist's office, was observed by her nurse, who suspected possible brain issues, and sent her down the hall for an impromptu MRI. Try that anywhere else.
6
May 12, 2008 at 12:01 AM Anonymous Says:
If she goes a year without the medication, she’ll lose the kidney, and then she’ll have to go on dialysis again,” said her husband, Nachman Dov, a retired garment district worker. “That will cost the government more than $200,000 a year. What sense does that make?”
The government is not in the business of making sense. Governement is here to mess up everyones life even if it cost 200,000 a year to do it.