Charles Plante, health-care lobbyist, dies at 84
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Version 0 of 1. Charles L. Plante, a lobbyist for the National Kidney Foundation who was credited with playing a pivotal role in enacting the legislation that authorized Medicare coverage for dialysis treatments for kidney disease patients, died Dec. 21 at his home in Middleburg, Va. He was 84. The cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease, said his wife, Cynthia Plante. Dr. Plante, whose doctorate was in international relations, spent his early career as a Senate staffer and regional director of the Peace Corps mission in the Philippines. But he was best known as a lobbyist for the Kidney Foundation and other health-related organizations, including what is now the American Society of Transplantation and the United Network for Organ Sharing. He retired in 1997 after almost three decades with the Kidney Foundation. The most significant work of his career was the 1972 End-Stage Renal Disease legislation that provided Medicare coverage for dialysis treatment for millions of kidney disease patients who otherwise faced imminent death. To ease the measure’s passage, Dr. Plante helped arrange for it to be considered as an amendment to an omnibus Social Security and Medicare funding bill, and also to assemble a bipartisan coalition in both chambers of Congress to support it. The bill “would not have passed without Charlie Plante’s sustained efforts,” James J. Mongan, a physician and former deputy assistant secretary for health at what is now the Department of Health and Human Services, said in 1998 at an American Society of Pediatric Nephrology conference. As a health-care lobbyist, Dr. Plante also pressed for increased funding for the National Institutes of Health, legislation to establish a regulatory framework for the donations of organs and tissues, and Medicare coverage for immunosuppressive drug therapy. Charles Larry Plante was born in Minot, N.D., on Aug. 8, 1931. He was a 1953 graduate of Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., and received a master’s degree in history from the University of Montana in 1955 and his doctorate from Georgetown University in 1963. He was chief of staff for Democratic Sens. Thomas Dodd of Connecticut and Quentin Burdick of North Dakota before serving as Philippines regional director for the Peace Corps from 1966 to 1969. His first marriage, to Mary Ann Vandergrift, ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of 35 years, Cynthia Garber Plante of Middleburg; six children from his first marriage, Patricia P. Kasamatsu of Kitakyushu, Japan, Charles J. Plante II of London, Peter F. Plante and Jonathan J. Plante, both of Sterling, Va., Kate Cordsen of New York City and Joshua V. Plante of Vienna, Va.; a brother; 13 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. |