Doggett Opening Statement at Health Subcommittee Hearing on Improving Kidney Health Through Better Prevention and Innovative Treatment
(As prepared for delivery)
Thank you to our witnesses for joining us today, particularly Ashli Littleton, who is one of over 800,000 Americans living with end-stage renal disease. We appreciate your efforts to be here to share your story and the challenges so many face with this dreaded disease.
Improving access to home dialysis, which enables patients to go through grueling treatment in the comfort of their homes, is important. But we must also address the drivers of ESRD and how to protect kidney health. Republicans passed the largest cut to health care in U.S. history—a cut that will leave millions of Americans without access to a family physician and essential medications to manage diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol, and other contributors to kidney health.
About three-quarters of Americans with kidney disease rely on Medicaid for dialysis, transplant care, and medications. Republicans’ cuts jeopardize the health of those patients and preventative care for millions of consumers. While patients are guaranteed Medicare coverage when they are diagnosed end stage renal disease, much work remains to prevent folks from ever reaching that point.
And for those with other debilitating conditions, the 2-year waiting period for Medicare coverage should be eliminated as it was for ESRD and ALS patients. I authored the Stop the Wait Act to ensure consumers receiving SSDI disability do not have to wait 2 years for comprehensive, life-saving health care. An estimated 56,000 Americans die each year while in the waiting period. We should do for them what has been done for people like Ms. Littleton.
And when people receive Medicare coverage, they should also be guaranteed protections to purchase a Medigap supplemental policy. For consumers with complex medical conditions like ESRD, a Medigap plan is essential to afford expensive, lifelong treatment. Yet, Medigap plans are exempt from the ACA’s protections for pre-existing conditions. People like Ms. Littleton can be denied a plan or charged more.
While consumers over the age of 65 with ESRD have been offered protection, anyone under 65 like Ms. Littleton can be discriminated against. And for consumers of all ages with other health conditions, there is no protection. I authored the Close the Medigap Act to protect all consumers from such discrimination and extend the ACA’s protections to Medigap. To improve access to home dialysis, Congress needs to close the Medigap to help more consumers afford their preferred treatment.
With Trump cuts to medical research and FDA staff, rubber stamped by my Republican colleagues, we will see fewer of those innovative treatments. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated just a 10% cut to NIH funding and a 9-month delay in FDA review would result in 53 fewer new drugs in the coming years. Trump is proposing cuts nearly 4 times greater than what CBO analyzed. For an ESRD patient struggling with the side effects of dialysis, for a cancer patient seeking a cure, for a child with a rare disease hoping to live to adulthood, these cuts are catastrophic as clinical trials are cancelled and research labs are shuttered.
I hope the bipartisan interest in today’s hearing will extend to a bipartisan commitment to restore decimated medical research and health coverage gaps that are harming kidney disease patients and other consumers. I look forward to today’s discussion.
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