Why does medicare cover/pay for dialysis for patients with end stage renal disease?

I found this on the website of Kidney Care Partners, URL below:

On October 30, 1972 the national ESRD program鈥擯ublic Law 92-601鈥攚as passed as an amendment to the Medicare Act after only 30 minutes of debate with only one dissenting vote. The senate followed with a 52-3 vote. Senator Vance Hartke (D-Ind.) summed up the rationale for the new law:

In what must be the most tragic irony of the 20th century, people are dying because they cannot get access to proper medical care. We have learned how to treat or to cure some of the diseases (that) have plagued mankind for centuries, yet those treatments are not available because of their cost. Mr. President, we can begin to get our priorities straight by undertaking a national effort to bring kidney disease treatment within the reach of all those in need.

The bill, signed into law by President Nixon, gave all Americans the right to treatment for ESRD, regardless of age. ESRD was and remains the only medical condition given this status.

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