A quirk in the law means that America’s kidney shortage costs taxpayers

IN 1971, AN unemployed salesman named Shep Glazer upended the typically somnolent hearings of the House Ways and Means Committee by giving a live demonstration of dialysis before aghast congressmen. The shock seemed to pay off. Mr Glazer’s goal—to ensure that all patients reliant on blood-filtering dialysis machines, because of failing kidneys, would be covered by a then-newfangled programme called Medicare, the government health-insurance scheme for the elderly, regardless of age—soon became law. Through the new end-stage renal disease (ESRD) programme, Medicare for All became a reality for a certain portion of the sick, and has remained so for nearly 50 years.