I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now, and judging from the lack of posts on this topic, I’m not alone. You’ve got just about a week to get your entry in for the May Blog Carnival at Diabetes Social Media Advocacy:
Diabetes can sure be expensive. Insurance can help take away some of the financial burden, but sometimes the things we want, or even need, are not covered by insurance. With that in mind, we turn back to our April 18th chat to Fill in the Blanks on the following sentence . . .
I wish my insurance company paid for _________because ______________.
I wish my insurance would pay for more education, more products, and more care for those who cannot afford to pay for their own care.
Let me explain what I mean: First, we know there are many PWDs who either have no access to insurance, or access to high-cost care that is still more than they can afford. We must do what we can for them. It’s not fair that I have access to care that I can still afford (though it’s getting costlier for the same care every year), but others do not. Meanwhile, a quick check of the Carefirst home page (Carefirst is the local Blue Cross carrier in our area) shows that they were involved in providing over $11 million in grants in the last four months for various causes. One of those is an $8.5 million grant over three years to help fund 12 health care centers that provide care to those who don’t have access elsewhere. A check of Aetna’s website (Aetna is my carrier) shows that the company had $1.97 billion in operating earnings last year. Don’t you think that these two companies, plus a few others, can provide a lot for those without care? Just a fraction of that money can make all the difference for someone… or many someones.
How about education about eating right and carb counting? The importance of testing your glucose level? Learning the mathematics of BG and carb counting in relation to insulin bolus? Simple things that you or I know by heart. But those are things that someone without access to care is only guessing about.
Maybe the answer is providing low-cost or no-cost insulin to those who can’t afford it. And among those who can’t afford it, I count those who hoard their insulin, taking less than what is optimal, so they can conserve their precious life-saving resources. And speaking of hoarding… while we’re at it insurance companies, can we stop quibbling over how many test strips are appropriate per day? None of us are using them just for the fun of it.
I don’t have all of the answers… maybe you have some of your own. Feel free to leave them in the comments section. I just know that insurance companies can still make a lot of profit, while helping those less fortunate. That’s the very definition of a win-win proposition. Can we make this happen? What do you think?
This post is my May entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2012/may-dsma-blog-carnival-2/
A Disclaimer
I have no medical training. If you consider anything written here as medical, legal, financial, or any other kind of advice, you’re out of your mind. Please speak to a learned professional before making any changes that might affect your health. Any of the original content found on this site is my property and should not be reproduced, copied, or otherwise used without the author’s expressed written consent.
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