Kidneys and Covid19

The divide on whether to open is coming down to politics not medicine--specifically, who hates Donald Trump. But maybe it should come to whether you care about your kidneys. Take a look at the comorbidities of those who died of or with (which seems to be a lot of it) this novel SARS virus--diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Specifically, diabetes. About a third of those with diabetes (which is often related to both hypertension and obesity) will develop chronic kidney disease. The kidneys can't filter your blood and you may also have nerve damage. It's a disease that affects the same people vulnerable to this virus--over 60, high blood pressure and member of a minority group. A chronic condition means usually it's controllable by changes in life style and medication, and nagging from the doctor.

The very people who aren't seeing their doctors or are afraid to call, are the ones you're putting in danger by hanging on to your hatred of Donald Trump so you can blame him for the virus and the shut down. End the shut down; save your kidneys.

And please, Trump haters, stop acting so morally superior by accusing conservatives of wanting people to die by going back to life and work. You are the problem. . .

How are your kidneys?

"House and Senate Democrat leaders, and President Obama, argue that they can "pay for" health insurance "reform" by cutting $500 billion from Medicare spending over the next decade—largely through arbitrary reimbursement cuts,— without reducing the quality of care delivered to beneficiaries.

Yet, in January, 2011, Medicare will implement a new payment system for patients receiving dialysis for end stage kidney disease that will severely ration care to this vulnerable (and largely minority) population based on equally arbitrary payment reductions. These patients will be the unfortunate canary in the Medicare coal mine: "reform" legislation will expose millions of Medicare patients to rationing and reduced quality of care." Read the whole story at Medical Progress Today.

But bring out the violins for illegal aliens who need dialysis back in Mexico! NYT story. If you read far enough, you'll see Mexico's present (lower costs, but private pay) is our future.

State of Emergency--dialysis for illegal immigrants

The University Medical Center in Las Vegas is a tax supported hospital and is required by federal law to treat illegal immigrants. Illegals (or foreign nationals) come to the ER for kidney dialysis and the cost at UMC can run from $11,000 to $18,000 per visit for an emergency dialysis patient because of the testing required and because they are so sick when they come. The federal government has kicked the can down the road on the immigrant health issue as it has on many unfunded mandates, and the costs land on the local medical facilities. Read the full story. This is just one hospital spending $24 million a year; it's even worse in California, and nationwide it’s in the billions.

This story punctures the myth that the poor don’t have health care, or that the billions spent on illegals for their health care isn’t a huge problem which the federal government, regardless of who’s in the White House or Congress, has steadfastly refused to solve. Mexico really doesn’t want its citizens to come home. If the brilliant minds from anarchist to liberal to libertarian in Washington haven't been able to solve this small piece of the puzzle for just one disease for one specific group, what makes you think they can take over the whole enchilada without a huge, ongoing case of indigestion?