Follow Up: Arizona Restores Medicaid Coverage for Transplants

Reuters is reporting here that Arizona has restored funds to its state Medicaid program so that it will once again cover organ transplantation once again. See one of my previous posts here where I vociferously attacked the cuts and the humanity of all involved in letting a lady die as a result of the cuts.

Its good to see that the people of Arizona (as reflected by the action taken by their elected representatives) have taken appropriate action to rectify an unconscionable piece of legislation which was resulting in the deaths of citizens of Arizona.

Again, this was not only a government-made disaster, but it was also a man-made disaster on many levels including the family, community, and medical field levels.

I dare to hope that there were some hospitals which performed transplants as charity care during the time when there was no Medicaid coverage. But I'd love to actually see some proof of that.

NYTimes Explores Dialysis: At What Cost Do We Keep People Alive

See this interesting (though slanted) article about dialysis, governmental policies which cover the cost of ESRD, and end stage renal disease (which includes dialysis treatment), and the NYTimes's slant that people who are very sick and very expensive to treat may be better off dying than going on dialysis (remind anyone of death panels?).

The NYTimes does do thoughtful readers and listeners a service by allowing dialysis patients to describe their lives in their own words. Listen here.

The bottom line is this - irregardless of what the NYTimes thinks. People living with ESRD, their doctors, and the stakeholders who pay for the treatment (like Medicare, insurance companies, and Corporate Self-Insurance health plans) should insist on the highest quality evidenced based standard of care for ESRD treatment which includes dialysis treatment. If this standard of care is applied, people with ESRD can live longer and costs can be contained.