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I didn't have to pay my husband's medical expenses. He had insurance from his work, and they couldn't drop him when he had to retire on disability, but because he was a dialysis patient, the state took over those expenses (I don't know why - it's some deal they have between the insurance companies and the state - after a year and a half on dialysis, the state takes over) and the insurance covered the remaining percentage and all other medical costs... he had so many complications and prescriptions for a few years, and then the failed transplant surgery and weeks in ICU, that I'm sure the total was around half a million or more, but I didn't have to pay any of it. Thank God.

Val, did the State of Washington have a medical program to help defray costs of PX for dialysis patients? I don't know if all states do that or if it was just Montana.

When Gene started dialysis, the health insurance I converted to private from the place I had worked, stayed with us for a year--they paid as primary for approximately 6 months [that's all I had left on the conversion package] and Medicare picked up unpaid amount--which was very little.

Then Medicare took over...but they don't pay for any of the drugs. The State of Montana had an ESRD Drug Program. It usually ran out of money within 6 months of the start of a fiscal year. We were fortunate in that Gene didn't have diabetes and need insulin or drugs or supplies for that, or any other meds except for blood pressure and his pregnat vitamin pill!

Some of the patients we knew who had gone on to transplants pay a horrorific amount for their anti-rejection meds....I believe Medicare pays for a year. We had an 18 year old gal who received a transplant that the anti rejection drugs cost her family $104 a week....she did super with the transplant.