Survival for $25,000 - TIME 1971

Survival for $25,000 - TIME:

This is an article about the trials and tribulations kidney failure patients faced before Medicare expanded in 1972 to cover kidney diseases theough its End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Program.

At 29, Don Shevlin was just two months away from taking his oral exams for a Ph.D. in English at U.C.L.A. Today, two years later, he has neither the degree nor any prospect of a teaching job. Says he: 'I see myself as perennially pauperized.'

Shevlin suffers from chronic kidney disease, an incurable type that necessitated the removal of the organ. Now, in order to prevent a fatal buildup of toxins in his blood, he must report to the university hospital three times a week for kidney dialysis, a six-hour cleansing process that enables him to survive until he can get a kidney transplant. Since his illness wiped out his small savings, Shevlin lives on welfare payments of $178 a month, while the State of California pays for most of the cost of his treatments —which amounts to $3,000 a month.

Shevlin's position is not unique. Nearly 5,000 Americans are currently undergoing regular kidney dialysis. Thousands more would choose such treatment if it were more widely available, but none can escape the gigantic cost of staying alive.

One of the questions I get asked is, "Aren't you worried that 'The Government' will take over and start cutting off care or rationing care?" Not under Democrats.

Medicare and the ESRD program are examples of America's liberal social justice tendencies accomplishing something.

Too bad kidneys aren't the only organs that go bad, or we'd already have universal health care.

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