Please sign a petition to improve US dialysis care!

[DoriSchatell]

Hi y'all,

March is National Kidney Month. It's a good time to think about dialysis--and how sad it is that the U.S. lags so far behind the rest of the industrialized world. 20 million Americans have chronic kidney disease (CKD), and 20 million more are at risk. About 375,000 need dialysis--of which 92% do "standard" hemodialysis : 3 treatments/week of 3-4 hours. This is not enough dialysis for most to live the lives they wish to live. We want Medicare and the Congressional Kidney Caucus to support better treatment. You can help!

1. Please take a moment and sign our petition, at http://www.petitiononline.com/eodD0903/petition.html
2. Please forward this message to everybody in your address book.
3. Please post this message to all of your social networking friends.
4. Please post this message to all of the internet forums and groups to which you belong.

A Little More Background...
Current Medicare reimbursement is limited to 3 treatments per week. This forces people who are doing standard hemodialysis to go 2 days without treatments. They are 50% more likely to die on the day after a 2-day treatment gap than any other day of the week. One researcher estimates the number of unnecessary deaths due to this practice at 33,000 per year.

We're asking that Congress pressure Medicare to routinely pay for every-other-day treatments. Let's raise the floor and ensure that everyone gets the treatment they need to feel their best and live longer. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your support!

Dori