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Kaiser Permanente operates in a private health care
system very different to the UK. In the USA, only older
patients and individuals not in employment have health
care provision from the state (Medicare and Medicaid
respectively). All other individuals are expected to cover
their own health care costs. The most common way is by
subscription to a health insurance policy by the employer.
This covers the cost of treatment from independent health
professionals and hospitals.
For the majority of patients, their level of kidney function remains stable over time and does not deteriorate. Most of these patients can be cared for by their family doctors. For others, unfortunately, their kidney function gradually deteriorates in which case these patients can benefit from seeing a kidney doctor at their local hospital. For a few patients their kidneys may eventually fail completely. If this happens, we can often replace their kidney function with an artificial kidney machine (dialysis) and for some patients, we can give them a kidney transplant to replace their damaged kidneys. Some patients do not want to do either of these kinds of treatment and for these patients we focuson looking after any symptoms they may develop in relation to their kidney disease.
