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

[Mike Freeman]

Ahem ... NFB is a nonpartisan organization and obviously that goes for its
divisions.

In fact, the post below was a diatribe against *private* insurers for the
cavalier, high-handed way they dictate the number of strips they'll pay for
on the basis of fear of being cheated rather than on the basis of improving
patient care.

Mike Freeman


-----Original Message-----
From: diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bernadette Jacobs
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2012 1:46 PM
To: Diabetes Talk for the Blind
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-magazi
> ne/>
> ,
> Diabetic <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/health-care/diabetic/> 
> , Insulin <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/medications/insulin/> 
> ,
>
>
>
>

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