LOS ANGELES – Dialysis patients, community leaders and healthcare workers submitted more than 600,000 voter signatures to county election officials to qualify a statewide ballot initiative to improve patient care in dialysis clinics.

Dialysis patients spoke about the poor conditions they face in clinics and why they support the initiative, and then transported the signatures to election offices for verification. Advocates far surpassed the 365,880 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.

“I’ve seen with my own eyes how patients suffer in dialysis clinics,” said Tangi Foster, a dialysis patient from Los Angeles. “When I learned about the out-of-control profits the dialysis companies make and how that drives up costs for everyone, I quickly got on board with this initiative.”

The Fair Pricing for Dialysis Act, which would appear on the Nov. 6, 2018 ballot, limits dialysis corporations’ revenues to 15 percent above the amount they spend on patient care. It will push the corporations to invest more of their profits in patient care through hiring more staff, buying new equipment, or improving facilities. According to the U.S. Renal Data System, 66,000 Californians with kidney failure get life-saving treatment in dialysis clinics.

Advocates in Ohio filed a similar dialysis ballot initiative for the November 2018 election, and expect to submit voter signatures to election officials there by early July.

People with kidney failure must undergo dialysis treatment three days a week at clinics to remove their blood, clean it, and put it back in their bodies. Each treatment lasts three to four hours.