This blog is by Katie – read her bio here
I just read this article through a post I found on TuDiabetes about 24 year old woman Amanda Starnes, recently diagnosed with T1 diabetes, struggling to stay out of the ICU while lacking health insurance and means to pay her medical costs.
““I need special insulin that lasts me throughout the day, but that’s $78 a bottle for a two-week supply. So we’re talking about $160 a month. My doctor’s been giving me free samples of that to sustain me, but she recently ran out of samples, and I can’t afford it, so I ended up in ICU,” Starnes said.
With no money or means, Starnes resorted to avoiding the ER by manually influencing her sugar level and using only her regular insulin, a tactic that failed miserably last month.
Starnes is brooding and fearful: “I still have some samples of the regular insulin, but I need so much, because my pancreas does not work at all, so without that 24-hour dose of special insulin I’m constantly registering high numbers on my glucose meter. They’re so high, it doesn’t even register any number. It just says ‘high,’ which is up at stroke level.”
Her situation is particularly difficult because of falling into a category of being young and chronically ill with a disease that only partially benefits from disability protections.
“The standard rule, however, is that non-disabled, low-income childless adults have the most limited access to public coverage. Sure, 24 states provide some form of coverage to childless adults, but only six, according to Kaiser Foundation information, provide the full scope of Medicaid benefits to this segment of the population. And in many states, childless adults are not eligible for any form of Medicaid, no matter how low their income—even if there’s no income whatsoever.
Mississippi, one of the poorest states in the union, falls into that last category. Roy Mitchell, program director for the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, says state leaders have been content to let people like Starnes die for decades.”
“I’m dying, but I’m not physically debilitated enough for help. Isn’t that strange?”
Read the full article here
I think we can all feel the fear of being in Amanda’s place and the knowledge that we could be one crisis, one policy, one more diagnosis away from desperation for our “life elixir.”
Amanda, if you read this and have yet to connect with support networks and other forms of assistance – contact us!
If Obama is going to take four more years to implement his public health care plan, and if it turns out as exclusionary as his speech suggested, we as PWDs can afford to wait. Now is the time for our diabetes community to realize our collective power and step up to fill the gaps left by our current health care system.
Ugh. That's just heartbreaking on so many levels. Heartbreaking for Amanda. heartbreaking to know that there are way too many of us having similar struggles. Heartbreaking that all of us are a graduation, a birthday, a lost job, a life event away from being uninsured.
Wow … it breaks my heart to hear stories like this. I hope she'll be ok!!! And my fear is that this could happen to any of us at any time. I am glad though that there are opportunities when we can help each other at times when the health care system fails us .. let's hope she get some of that help!
I am "in" the same category.
'….non-disabled, low-income childless adults have the most limited access to public coverage…'
I hate hearing about stuff like this. Hate. It. I hope she finds some help soon.
But, I used to be on NPH and Regular. Only insulin I can think of that she's talking about is Lantus.
Wall-mart sells Reli-On insulins (Novo-Nordisk makes it) in Reg and NPH for $20.00 a vial.
She needs to be taught survival. Thos 2 insulins WILL work, maybe not the high-tech way we like, but if it were death ot those insulins, I'd take those insulins.
It is heartbreaking. My rx's run between $130-200 a month and doctors appointments can run around $60, but that's WITH insurance. I know how much my insurance covers (for my strips ALONE it covers about $250 resulting in a $35 copay for a 1-month supply) and I know I would not survive if I had to pay the full price. It just makes me appreciate the coverage I do have. I hope she finds other ways to get her supplies like the previous comment mentioned.
I wish there was something more we could do to help people understand why Diabetes IS a disability. It annoys the hell out of me that if you are addicted to drugs you can qualify for monatery and medical help. Well guess what? I am addicted to a drug, it's called insulin!
I wanted to note that I only put in excerpts of her story – it is more fully explained in the link to the full article. One important point is that she is newly diagnosed – so surviving in a manner that is far below modern standards by taking outdated insulin when endos are teaching modern management is all the more difficult since she is just learning this disease. I agree survival is preferable, but this type of rationing of higher-efficacy Rx's from low-income individuals who fall in certain categories is immoral. Her age, income, and type of family should have no bearing on her ability to achieve optimal, up-to-date diabetes care.
Hopefully the media around her case will help her and others in similar situations receive more education about some of the cost-cutting methods people have mentioned as well as programs for Rx financial assistance and ultimately fix the systems that allow so many of us to fall through the cracks of care.
Hey I think your post is good!I found it on Google. Keep up the good work.