Level of Support

[murf]

I am extremely interested in the amount of Government support you receive for dialysis. In other words how much does dialysis cost you financially. Are there members of IHD where the government does not contribute at all and, if so, what happens to these patients. It is a subject that I would like to make into a mini project. I am from Australia but would prefer fellow Aussies to answer this question. Far more objective. I think I am yearning to re-live my days as a Doctoral student. I do miss challenging research but I found I did not have the energy to go on. 

[kristina]

I receive no health care and no support.
I have no doctor/nephrologist/specialist to go to.
Heaven help me if I need Dialysis.
I am pre-dialysis, my kidneys function 10-12%.
I have to pay privatly for every bloodtest 
to test my Creatinine, Urea, Potassium and Sodium.
I decipher the blood tests with the help of the Internet.
I don’t have any money to receive private health care
and my only hope is that my kidneys keep functioning.

[WishIKnew]

Ohio, USA

I have private insurance through my husband's job.  For the first 30 months of dialysis that was my primary insurance with Medicare as secondary.  After 30 months it switches and Medicare becomes primary.  My PD costs $1,230 a day.  Hard to believe that is what's billed my insurance since I do it all at home with only two visits to the clinic a month, once for a blood draw and once to see my nephrologist, the dietician, and the social worker.  These visits are billed seperately and are several hundred dollars each visit.  So far my out of pocket cost for dialysis is nothing and for perscriptions it is about $180.00 a month in co-pays.  That's my story....

[RichardMEL]

Aussie as you know. I understand the aus govt spends around $85,000 p.a. supporting the average hemo patient (not sure about pd, or post transplant). I found the average costs for me, out of pocket, went down while I was on in-centre hemo, mostly because they supplied the aranesp which I didn't have to go get from the pharmacy (which were subsidised under medicare at the PBS rate of $34). I am not on a health care card or anything like that so I pay the full ($34) rate for the PBS meds, but i totally don't complain (just checked a source, and the full cost of a med like Valcyte is around $4,500 for a month's supply ).

I would say my out of pocket expenses while on D would have run to around ~$100/month which was basically for meds (renagel, calcitricol, sensipar). It's a little more post transplant (more meds), but they are changing constantly (coming down a bit) and of course I don't have the imposition of dialysis to deal with in terms of a time cost. Since I work full time this is a cost I can easily manage.

Obviously I feel we are very well looked after here in Australia - specially compared to many other parts of the world.

[-Lady Noir-]

Well, NZ is close enough to Australia.. 

Dialysis was 100% free.
Mike was able to go on the invalids benefit after he resigned from his job
Prescriptions are all $3 each no matter what, and after 20 items, he gets a card and then they are all free up to 6 months after.

[Phraxis]

Canada here.

All is covered while on dialysis, and then again post transplant. Universal medicare == best healthcare methodology invented.

[Henry P Snicklesnorter]

.

[murf]

So far have information fron USA, Oz, NZ and canada. Any others?

[KICKSTART]

UK , all free , unless you choose to go private.

[Poppylicious]

UK - and as Kickie says, it's all free, baby (thanks to the NHS).  Blokey's only outgoings are the petrol expenses for the approx 130+ extra miles he has to do each week because of dialysis.

I feel blessed to live here, but do worry about the future and government spending.  *sigh*