ESRD legislation and regulation (Reprinted from Dialysis & Transplantation, October, 1996)

When an identical bill was up for a vote on the Senate floor, Senator Vance Hartke, in the final 15 minutes before the Senate recessed, introduced a very brief amendment at Section 299-I of the 165-page Act. As such, the amendment passed without debate or discussion, as did the entire Social Security Amendments of 1972. Thus was born the End-Stage Renal Disease Provisions of Medicare by which almost all Americans with ESRD, regardless of age, became eligible in 1973 and thereafter for Medicare benefits.