Priorities

[JasonEb]

Was doing a little light research, and this is what I discovered...

The NSA who is in the news quite a bit lately and is vigorously defending themselves as I watch the Sunday morning news shows, is estimated to have a budget of $10 billion (the exact number is classified, imagine that).  This is the agency ripping away civil rights left and right in the name of protecting us against terrorists and other threats.  An admirable goal (whether that justifies the means, however...that is up to you to decide) and I am sure they have saved dozens, perhaps hundreds, mayhaps even thousands of lives since 2001 with that $10 billion/year.

Now the National Institute of Health has a budget which dedicated approximately $650 million toward kidney disease research.  That's 6.5% of the NSA's budget dedicated to a disease that contributed to the death of approximately 90,000 people in 2009 alone.

Just something to chew on.

[Rerun]

There are 400,000 of us on dialysis.  Not a huge amount compaired to people with cancer  or other diseases.

So, no we are not a priority.  Plus we have dialysis to keep us alive (sort of ) so they go for the ones in immediate danger.

[JasonEb]

There are 400,000 of us on dialysis.  Not a huge amount compaired to people with cancer  or other diseases.

However, approximately one in 10 American adults (or 20 million) have some degree of chronic kidney disease according to the CDC.

So, no we are not a priority.  Plus we have dialysis to keep us alive (sort of ) so they go for the ones in immediate danger.

Okay, let's take your example of cancer instead.  The 2012 actual budget for (all types) cancer research for the NIH was $5.6 billion with approximately 577,000 people killed by the disease (that doesn't even count the people living with the disease).

Giving the (probably extremely generous) premise that the NSA has saved 10,000 lives from 2001-2012, that would average out to around $12 million per potential death compared to about $9700 per actual deaths (again, add in people living with the disease, and that number gets much smaller).  I know it's a little bit apples to oranges comparison (12 years compared to 1 year), but I still think the point is clear.

I know where the real terror lies in our country.

(P.S.:  I know you weren't really disagreeing with my point, just sort of sarcastically playing devil's advocate, but I thought I would use your post to expand upon mine.)

[jeannea]

I agree priorities are messed up. I get hung up on that priority where they'll pay for dialysis then pay for a transplant but won't pay for transplant drugs so you end up back on dialysis which they will pay for.

I agree we're invisible. Just like most kidney disease starts out invisible. I think the perception is we're either on dialysis because we're older than dirt or we did something terrible to our bodies and it's our own fault we're on dialysis. I know that's not true. The percentage of people who harmed their own kidneys is small. And even the older people on dialysis aren't always ancient.