There is a list of special conditions somewhere on the Medicare site, and vasculitis is one of them, that make one more likely to get benefits. But it is not a for sure thing, they still look at individual cases and can deny or approve. But I do remember end stage renal disease as being in a class by itself, and benefits are pretty much automatic for that regardless of age, or at least that's the impression I got. If you have the 90-day waiting period, or otherwise were sick enough for benefits at some defined point in the past, you will get retroactive benefits if approved, as a lump sum, as part of the deal. The Social Security and Medicare sites are so convoluted, unless they have improved, that it makes me tired just to think about looking for that information again.