On Oct. 20, 1972, Nixon signed H.R. 1 into law. The law automatically qualified anyone with chronic renal disease, anyone who would need a kidney transplant, for Medicare, regardless of age.

So Medicare covers transplants and post care for a period and I was eligible even at my relatively young age, early 30s.

That said, the poor life choices that I made that led to needing the transplants also left me in a pretty big financial hole before healthcare and I had a month long hospital stay long before the transplant when I first got really sick.

In the end I filed for bankruptcy to free myself from the medical debt but also to get a clean start on the life I fucked up.

Even with the existing social safety nets it’s incredibly easy to go broke with our healthcare system.