Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lili on August 22, 2007 at 2:05pm

I totally feel trapped by health insurance here in the US. Still, I don't know what's better. Canada doesn't cover insulin pumps for adults and BC won't cover Lantus or Levemir. The UK doesn't cover insulin pumps, either, and it's very difficult to get specialist care. Very low A1cs are seen as undesirable. Japan will cover insulin pumps for some people, but the available models are all older and sometimes a bit sketchy. None of these countries cover enough test strips, and depending on how much you pay in taxes, you may not be able to afford more. I've heard encouraging things about Scandinavian countries, but so far I don't know any details.

I guess I'm not sure universal healthcare will ever be a reality here. There are too many people to insure and not enough profits to be made. I don't think those in charge will want to deprive doctors and corporations from making more profits.

Permalink Reply by Lili on August 23, 2007 at 11:45pm

I'm not sure where you're getting that. I was comparing the current US system (private healthcare) to current universal healthcare plans and noting that the universal health care plans do not offer better coverage than I've had under private insurance in the US. I never said anything about "Canada sucks" or "the US is superior." I thought it was clear I was talking about private healthcare since that's what the thread is about and we don't have universal healthcare in the US.

I *am* still in favor of universal healthcare, even though it almost certainly would mean that my coverage for diabetes would go down.

Permalink Reply by Lili on August 25, 2007 at 1:00am

I'm afraid I don't understand your argument that "if a person can't afford an insulin pump in Canada they would not be able to afford it in the U.S. either unless the U.S. government paid for it." Our private insurance pays for it. No one is talking about US universal healthcare, because we don't have that, so I don't see where the US government comes in at all there. I've never heard an uninsured person make that statement, and that seems to be what you're assuming about it.

By going down, I meant that fewer things would be covered. Like insulin pumps.

Permalink Reply by Cam on August 22, 2007 at 2:06pm

HI,

I totally feel trapped by this. I would love to try to have my own business but worry to much about how to get health insurance and the cost of it.

I think it is possible for us to have universal healthcare. For being the best country in the world we still have 47 million people without healthcare.

Permalink Reply by Scott Strumello on August 22, 2007 at 5:36pm

I feel totally trapped, as if my choices in life are more limited because of the need for health insurance. If I didn't have to rely on insurance for survival (insulin, testing supplies, etc.), I could work as an independent contractor or start a business, but feel trapped in a job because I need the insurance for survival, something others don't need to worry about. If I was able to marry legally, then I might be covered under a spouse's plan, but thats only an option in Massachusetts (actually, all of New England have domestic partnership laws, but as New Jersey recently discovered, the terms don't mean the same thing and they really aren't equal.)

Permalink Reply by kimberly on August 22, 2007 at 7:33pm

trapped. chained. cornered. it is very limiting to have to have health care. my beloved owns a veterinary practice and her insurance is terribly expensive. we often lament that she can't be on my insurance. i lament that i will have to work to have insurance. and i will always have to work for a large entity which really isn't appealing to me. while it upsets me, at this point i suppose i'm resigned to it. is there any other choice? i can't imagine that universal healthcare will really happen. it seems as though the truly important issues are so big that they get lost once the elections are over. besides, why worry about healthcare when gay relationships are destroying the family. priorities, people.

Permalink Reply by Gwen Patton on August 26, 2007 at 7:16pm

I'm unbelievably fortunate.

My lifepartner works for a company that has delightfully intelligent people in it, who recognize that we are a valid family and have extended to us full domestic partner benefits. It has been a literal lifesaver...but not because of the diabetes, not directly.

I broke my neck back in December. My car trunk lid fell on it -- a 40mph gust slammed it down on my head and popped 3 disks and crushed them into my spinal cord -- and damn near paralyzed me. Thankfully, between my car insurance (which I had paid extra on for medical) and my own personal insurance through my employer, I managed to pay for the incredibly-expensive "triple anterior diskectomy with fusion and plating". Which means they went in through my throat, took out the smashed cervical disks, replaced them with banked donor bone, and put in a titanium plate to keep me from being a bobblehead for the rest of my life. It was an incredible operation that took 7 1/2 hours, and was the most extensive diskectomy the surgeon had ever done before.

It left me out of work for over 7 months. Then my company, who had been patient (but not paying me) all that time, finally decided to let me go. And my insurance went away. But thankfully, my partner's company had been insuring me for the entire time -- so it will not be a "pre-existing condition". Nor will my diabetes, which was diagnosed while I was covered. I just had to wait until the other insurances were gone before hers became primary and was really necessary.

Though I will admit I've been using her pharmacy benefits for a while -- the pricing was hella better than mine, and I have a PILE of prescriptions. We'd go broke in a month if we had to pay 'em all out of pocket.

But trapped? Annoyed is more the feeling. If it weren't for the insurance companies jacking up "what the market will bear", healthcare costs would probably be a hell of a lot lower, because no one is going to set prices that no human being could ever pay -- they'd be pricing themselves out of existence. But because the insurance companies make such ridiculous fees *possible*, they've been cranked up to the point where the insurance companies MUST exist in order to pay them.

Insurance was never meant to provide everyday health care for people. The original intent was to allow people to pool their money to get group rates on catastrophic care. Then it turned into a dodge to allow salary "raises" during wartime salary caps, by providing a "benefit" that didn't actually count as salary -- and turned into an entitlement that everyone expected to get when suddenly no one could afford to go to the doctor for a case of the flu without it!

Permalink Reply by SM Johnson on April 14, 2010 at 10:17am

Absolutely! I was all ready to sign up for private health insurance and quit my job when I was diagnosed. My dream is to be a full time writer. But with my husband self-employed, I am the insurance carrier, and feel that this diabetes crap really has me locked into my job.

Fortunately, I only work 3 days a week, and usually I like my job, so it could be a lot worse.