Remembering the 116th Congress (it fixed Medicare coverage of immunosuppressive drugs for transplant patients)

 This won't be the most memorable thing about the Congress that adjourned in 2020, but it's something positive: up through the end of 2020, inexplicably, Medicare covered only 3 years of immunosuppressive drugs for kidney transplant recipients. This meant that a few hundred patients a year who had no other medical insurance would lose their drugs, and their kidneys, after which Medicare (having refused to pay for the drugs that would have kept the transplanted kidneys working), cheerfully resumes paying for dialysis, which is vastly more expensive (and far less good for the patients).  It looks like Medicare is now going to be the insurer of last resort for such patients, and so they will be both healthier and less expensive.

H.R.5534 - Comprehensive Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Patients Act of 2020   116th Congress (2019-2020)

"To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for extended months of Medicare coverage of immunosuppressive drugs for kidney transplant patients, and for other purposes."

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Here's an earlier post, about the previous situation:

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Penny wise and pound foolish on kidneys and antirejection drugs