In our November 13, 2013 post Help Us Prevent Discriminatory Kidney Care Policies we asked you to take action to keep Oregon State from permitting private insurance companies to adopt waiting periods of up to 24 months on organ and bone marrow transplants.  We are happy to report that advocacy works yet again and that your emails helped defeat this proposal.  Oregon’s Insurance Division has ruled that it will not allow insurers to consider prior insurance coverage as a requirement for obtaining a transplant.

While this issue was resolved, the National Kidney Foundation remains concerned about the potential for other discriminatory insurance benefit designs by private insurance that place limitations on access to medications, dialysis treatments and transplant coverage across the 50 states.  We continue to monitor this issue and will be sure to alert you and weigh in when we learn of this happening.  As many of you are picking new health insurance options we encourage you to compare plans when you have a choice in coverage and to make sure you understand what the insurance plan will cover, what it won’t and how much you can expect to pay out of pocket for the health care services you need.