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

Wed Sep 5 17:11:23 UTC 2012

Either way this is all real scary in that I sure hope if this comes to
fruition, the insurance companies will never again have any right to
have such control over their patrons that they can't even listen to
their patrons' pcps' Endos, and the like after all these insurance
folks, most of them haven't a clue what many of us are dealing with
simply to treat our conditions, let alone survive???

On 9/4/12, Joy Stigile <joystigile at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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>
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