Letters to the editor: Let dialysis patients stay on private insurance; Garvey must step up
Protect insurance for dialysis
The life of a dialysis patient is one of constant uncertainty. I could not continue working when I started dialysis, as is the case for many other patients.
Thankfully, my spouse’s private insurance helped cover the treatment costs. Without private insurance, I would have been on the hook for thousands of dollars. I also could have lost my amazing in-network doctors and the option for at-home dialysis. In short, I would have had a completely different journey through kidney failure.
It is critical that kidney patients have the option to keep their private insurance for as long as possible on dialysis. However, a recent Supreme Court decision may allow private insurance to weaken coverage and push patients onto Medicare sooner than expected.
I urge legislators in Congress to pass a bill that would let dialysis patients stay on their private insurance for 30 months after they begin treatment, as we could before. We have a flawed healthcare system, but no dialysis patient should have to bankrupt themselves to pay for life-saving healthcare.
Gabriel Cooper, Camarillo
Garvey needs to provide answers
Steve Garvey was a great baseball player. He has done considerable humanitarian work since his retirement from baseball. But there is nothing in any of his online materials that tell you anything substantive about his political views.
His website is full of glittering generalities and no specifics. He recognizes the problems we have but there is not one suggestion about what he will or will not vote for. He needs to be asked for some definitive answers to some hard questions:
Do you think Biden won the last election? Would you vote for an abortion ban? Has human activity contributed to climate change and what would you do about it? Would you support withdrawing from NATO? Do you support aid to Ukraine? Do you support Trump’s view of presidential immunity? And, by the way, do you support Trump? One can’t tell from your website.
Time to step up to the plate and put your past glories behind and take a swing. The last thing we need is another celebrity politician who is somewhere in deep right field. We are entitled to answers.
Steven Rice, Thousand Oaks
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Letters: Dialysis patients on private insurance; Garvey must step up
