The Financial Burden of Chronic Kidney Disease: The Medication Edition

The mounting out-of-pocket expenses of prescription medications for people living with CKD and their comorbid conditions can be overwhelming. When you consider patients with low and middle incomes, it can create worsening health outcomes because of the lack of available resources to assist them in this area. No one should have to make life-altering decisions about affording prescription medications and managing their quality of life. One day at work in 2003, I was feeling exhausted and lethargic. I went to the medical department to get checked out. The attending nurse asked me if I had ever had my glucose levels checked. Her question was foreign to me, because I had not a clue to what she was alluding to. After explaining what glucose levels were, she took blood from my finger, and her next comment changed my life. The nurse told me my glucose level was 758 and I needed to go directly to the nearest hospital's emergency room. Upon being seen by the emergency room physician, he told me my A1c was 11.7 and diagnosed me with type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, the physician referred me to an endocrinologist for follow-up care. My physician told me I needed to lose weight and eat a healthier diet, but she never mentioned diabetes was the leading cause of kidney disease. The doctor also prescribed three different medications to help manage my diabetes: