A drought-stricken tree at sunset. (Photo: PG_Traveler, via Shutterstock)With the rainy season come and gone, drought’s withered hand remained firmly fixed on California this month, as it has been, with few exceptions, for the last decade. Woes pile up. Rain didn’t save us, the snowpack is all but gone, the Coastal Commission says no desalinating sea water, and urban-interface fires have already begun.
A surgical team performing an operation in a California hospital.(Photo: Hernndorff, via Shutterstock)OPINION: So after seven years of waiting, I finally received a kidney transplant in 2006. That same kidney has kept me alive, and I am grateful I have never had to go back to dialysis. Part of the reason I have stayed healthy is because my continuous health insurance pays for the medication to prevent my body from rejecting the transplanted kidney. But there is a flaw in our system that could prevent kidney transplant recipients from getting this kind of care.