Kidney disease survivors meet with lawmakers

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Kidney disease survivors meet with lawmakers

By VICTORIA STORY
Legislative Gazette Staff Writer
Mon, Mar 9, 2009

Courtney Dekorp had a kidney transplant in 2004 because of complications related to having diabetes.

“I was lucky enough that my mom was able to donate her kidney,” she said. “Although the transplant does a lot to ease the every day issues…it’s still something that’s always in the back of your mind, you don’t know how long the transplant is going to last. If it ends up rejecting you’re back on dialysis.”

Dekorp, a student at the University at Albany, stressed that dialysis is a life saving treatment for people with organ failure but pointed out the downside. “Financially it adds a lot of burden to your life that you don’t even know about, or might not know about, until you’re actually getting dialysis,” she said, listing the pills she takes to make sure she keeps her potassium levels low.

Last Tuesday the National Kidney Foundation and patient advocates met with legislators to talk about budget proposals they say could potentially increase health care costs, impacting dialysis treatments, medications and transplantation for kidney disease patients

Lani Jones, who also suffers kidney disease, said some proposed budget cuts could ultimately result in more deaths because people might not get treatment. Jones also said proposed budget cuts would reduce the number of people who could be served by the Medicare system.

The proposed cuts include reduced funding for diabetes programs, a heavier reliance on step therapy, which requires the use of cheaper medicines first before trying other drugs that may be more effective but are more expensive and limiting the number of prescriptions that Medicaid recipients can receive at any given time.

“Getting New York state legislators to really understand what kidney disease patients go through is really important this year, especially with most states looking closely at their budgets and where they can cut funding,” said Kathe LeBeau, a patient advocate who is undergoing dialysis treatments and was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2004, in a press release.

There are 400,000 dialysis patients nationwide and 650,000 are expected to be on it by 2010, according to the National Kidney Foundation. One out of nine adults are affected by kidney disease, the group says.

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, chair of the Health Committee, also stressed the importance of preventative screening for kidney disease.

The National Kidney Foundation says high risk groups include seniors, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and those with diabetes, a family history of kidney disease and hypertension.

A resolution passed in both the Senate and the Assembly declared March 3 Chronic Kidney Disease Awareness Day.

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