[Diabetes-talk] FW: Don't play God

[Joy Stigile]

Bernadette,

This is a Congress issue!  In 2014 the big Medicare Reform Bill fully takes 
effect and there will be many changes with insurance coverage!  Several 
years ago I was one of those NFB members who walked the halls of Capital 
Hill to make it happen!  The Republicans keep trying to stop it from 
happening.  I can't wait for 2014!

Joy

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bernadette Jacobs" <bernienfb75 at gmail.com>
To: "Diabetes Talk for the Blind" <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2012 1:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] FW: Don't play God


> Thank you Mr. OBama!!!
>
> On 9/1/12, Mike Freeman <k7uij at panix.com> wrote:
>> From: acb-diabetics-bounces at acb.org 
>> [mailto:acb-diabetics-bounces at acb.org]
>> On Behalf Of Patricia LaFrance-Wolf
>> Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 8:39 PM
>> To: 'Discussion list for diabetics and/or ACB issues'
>> Subject: [acb-diabetics] Don't play God
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Playing God
>>
>>
>> Katherine Marple
>>
>> Aug 25, 2012
>>
>> Description: cid:image001.jpg at 01CD855D.27EE6500
>>
>> Katherine Marple
>>
>> Recently, while scrolling through discussions posted on an online 
>> diabetes
>> <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/>  forum, I came across one from a man in
>> his
>> thirties who wrote about how paramedics had found his twin brother face
>> down
>> in a sauna, in an insulin
>> <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/medications/insulin/>  shock coma.
>> How
>> did he end up in such a state? The appalling answer is, he didn't have
>> enough glucose strips to test before he got into the hot tub. A few weeks
>> before the sauna incident, his insurance company had limited his glucose
>> strips to just four per day.
>>
>> For anyone with insulin-dependent diabetes, that is just asking for
>> trouble.
>> Testing at meals alone (breakfast, lunch
>> <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/food/lunch/> , dinner
>> <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/food/dinner/> , and the recommended
>> bedtime snack) would eat up his entire allotment. What about the days 
>> when,
>> no matter what you do, your glucose levels just aren't cooperating? 
>> You're
>> also supposed to test before you drive, before you exercise
>> <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/fitness/exercise/> , after you
>> exercise, and even more often when you're sick. I personally test about 
>> ten
>> times per day, even at 3 a.m. These tests are necessary in order to 
>> achieve
>> the beautiful A1C
>> <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/monitoring/a1c-test/>  results that
>> doctors and insurance companies are always touting.
>>
>> So why do insurance companies play God by limiting our supplies? If we're
>> not testing, our odds of going into shock or ketoacidosis are much 
>> higher,
>> and the cost of keeping us in an intensive care unit to recover is more
>> expensive than a few more strips per day.
>>
>> A few years ago, my former insurance company put a limit on my diabetes
>> supplies. There is nothing quite like the terror that you feel as you 
>> watch
>> your medication supply dwindling down to nothing, and you know that 
>> you've
>> got a full week to go before your insurance will authorize a refill. We
>> need
>> these things to survive, so it's more than horror-movie scary: It's a 
>> real
>> life fear of imminent death. You stand paralyzed, watching the Grim 
>> Reaper
>> slowly drag his scythe up the road toward you. Every month you watch him
>> coming, and it's on your last breath, when he's staring you right in the
>> face, that you dodge him and buy yourself one more month--just to do it
>> again the next month.
>>
>> I'm in a better place with a larger insurance company these days, but I
>> will
>> never forget that fear. Insurance companies should not have that power. 
>> No
>> one should have the authority to put our lives on the line. That control
>> belongs to each one of us, and us alone. So, I have a message for the
>> insurance companies. Please take a moment to chew on this: You can't make
>> money off of a dead person.
>>
>>   _____
>>
>> Categories: A1C
>> <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/complications-and-care/a1c/> ,
>> Diabetes <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/community/diabetes/> ,
>> Diabetes Health
>> <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/community/diabetes-health/> ,
>> Diabetes
>> Health Magazine
>> <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/community/diabetes-health-magazine/>
>> ,
>> Diabetic <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/health-care/diabetic/> ,
>> Insulin <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/medications/insulin/> ,
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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