Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

You know, 2017 was quite a year in health care in the USA. So, what’s happening in health care in 2018?

Pretty much the same things.

Any successes that were achieved in terms of awareness on drug pricing, or access to care, or anything else have been met with continued explanations and excuses, but not any real progress. In all fairness, the rollout of Eli Lilly’s Basaglar and Novo Nordisk’s Fiasp have been positive developments.

But they won’t mean much if few can afford those, or if insurance companies continue to take away choice from patients by only allowing one brand of drug to be on a plan’s formulary, while forcing patients on the non-formulary brands to use something that may not work best for them (a practice known as non-medical switching).

In 2017, successes that came from helping to defeat the forces trying to rip apart PPACA (Obamacare) were hurt by repeal of the individual mandate, the provision in PPACA that reduced overall costs by requiring everyone to have coverage. That happened in the “tax reform” package passed and signed into law last month.

There are other questions, of course… what’s going to happen with the Special Diabetes Program, used to help fund research? What about CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers many disadvantaged kids living with diabetes? It appears that the furor over partisan politics has left many previously no-brainer health care initiatives in limbo.

Buckle up, kids. It’s going to be another crazy year of fighting to hold on to things that we’ve already fought hard for many times. As a result of congress and the president blowing a trillion and a half dollar hole in the federal budget so they can help insurers and drug makers (among others who were already making more money than ever before), every single piece of spending is in danger of being cut to help make up the voluntary deficit they created.

Does this make you mad? It makes me mad. What do we do now?

First of all, we download the DPAC app. Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition will keep you updated on hot-button topics, and most of all, give you easy, quick ways to add your voice to the conversation. And wow, do we need your voice added to the conversation.

In addition, the American Diabetes Association and JDRF are doing a super job of advocating on our behalf, and they could use your support. They are also employing easy, quick tactics to help people living with and affected by diabetes join the advocacy effort from wherever they live. Get on their advocacy mailing lists and start communicating.

And don’t forget, you can always use your phone to actually speak with a person too. Contact your congressperson, senator, or even your president and let them know the score. Let them know you won’t be going away.

We don’t have to go all the way to Washington to share our personal stories. We don’t have to schedule time with a member of congress, hoping to get a chance to speak. We can speak now, loudly, and in unison, and easier than ever before.

If you have a phone, you are an advocate.