I’m writing this in support of bill HR1004, which will pay for more frequent treatments for kidney dialysis patients.  This neglected and forgotten segment of our population needs your help.  They suffer under the highest mortality rate in the industrialized world, a difference that cannot be accounted for by patients with complications.  We all need certain things to survive.  Food and water are the basics of life.  But dialysis patients need one more thing to survive, that is proper dialysis.  By rationing dialysis the way we have in this country, we have in essence put these people on a forced starvation diet.  People are dying needlessly each year due to this cruel system.  Mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, sons, and daughters are all being taken before their time.  Patients are allowed to go days between treatments.  Imagine going days without being able to use the bathroom.  Studies have shown what your common sense may tell you, this is very hard on the human body.  Please do what you can to change this barbaric system, and pass bill HR1004.  This bill could be improved by giving some incentive for more hours, but at least as it is, it attacks one of the major problems of dialysis (frequency of treatments).

Also be aware that passage of this bill is attacking just one of the trouble areas in dialysis.  Kidney patients also have to contend with a lack of oversight by an organization charged to protect them, the Renal Networks.  High patient to staff ratios also plague the industry.  Poor staff training is also another concern.  The reuse of dialyzers is yet another problem (the cleaning of filters with harsh chemicals).  The concerns are many, but with passage of this bill, a large step in improving the lives of kidney patients can be taken.  And don't allow these dialysis companies to cut times to a point where the gains from increased frequency have been nullified.
 

Sincerely,