My son Dylan (DOB 9/29/06) was born with lymphedema in his entire lower body – legs, feet and genitals. I starting working to improve insurance coverage for the treatment of this disease when Dylan was just a baby and our insurance company denied his coverage for the prescription compression garments that he desperately needed.
I knew that if left untreated his lymphedema would progress and he would face disfiguring swelling, chronic and perhaps life threatening infections, and he might even become completely disabled. As if having a child born with an incurable disease requiring daily care wasn’t hard enough, I was completely devastated when our insurance company refused to cover his treatment.
I could not understand why they would choose to deny coverage for a treatment that would prevent far more costly complications that they would only end up paying for later on. And I absolutely could not live with the thought of my child facing the horrendous, yet avoidable, complications of untreated lymphedema – I could not let this be his fate.
So I have vowed to do everything in my power to correct this injustice and ensure that Dylan does not face a lifetime of struggling to get the medical treatment that he desperately needs and deserves. My son has many decades until he reaches retirement age and Medicare. But it is because of Medicare’s short sightedness in failing to provide adequate coverage for lymphedema treatment that many private insurance policies do the same.
Through passage of this legislation, the lives of millions of Americans who suffer from lymphedema will be vastly improved. They will remain productive members of society, leading otherwise healthy and normal lives – rather than further burdening our health care system with costly, preventable complications, and in some cases becoming disabled and unable to work.
Please do whatever you can to ensure the Lymphedema Treatment Act is passed in to law.
