A Letter To The Editor: Honoring Charity's Role In Healthcare

A Letter To The Editor

To the Editor:

My name is Tiffani Roberson, and I am a Licensed Master Social Worker at the dialysis clinic located on Grogans Mills Road in the Woodlands. I am very passionate about my job, and I am devoted to working with our patients every day.

A year ago, Harvey hit our region and reminded everyone how vulnerable these dialysis patients are. Many patients suffered.

Their treatment schedules were interrupted by the disastrous flooding and in many cases caused life or death situations. Dialysis patients were extremely exposed during Harvey.

The patients that I help have become like family members. Dialysis patients are required to receive treatment for over four hours, three times a week which means we spend a lot of time together and develop a strong bond.

This is a very time consuming yet life-saving treatment. Since dialysis is very lengthy, many of my patients are on a fixed income and require help from family members and friends.

For my patients, it can become difficult to make ends meet and many depend on charitable groups to help pay for their insurance premiums. It worries me that federal policy makers are considering allowing insurance companies to reject these dialysis patients who depend on charitable funds for survival.

It would be inhumane to take this private insurance option from my patients, who are very sick and vulnerable, and force them into Medicare just because they are receiving help from charities.

The current system is working and should be left alone. Allowing insurance companies to evade honoring these patients’ policies would make their hard situation even worse and is downright wrong. Every district in America surely has dialysis patients, and I hope representatives in Washington will think about their constituents and do the right thing.

Sincerely,

Tiffani Roberson
Renal Social Worker