Hi. I’m John, and I have diabetes.
I’m okay, though; it was caught early, and it’s under control. But here’s the story, and how it relates to our health care debate.
I’m in my late 50s. I’ve been overweight for most of my adult life, and yeah, the main culprits have been sugar and carbs. Plus, there are diabetics on both sides of my family tree, and genetics is a big risk factor.
So, early January, routine visit to my doctor. He comes in with that adorable hangdog expression he wears when I’ve disappointed him with bad numbers or weight gain, and tells me I have diabetes.
It was a surprise to me, because I didn’t have any symptoms. Aside from my weight I felt pretty good; but my blood sugar was in the danger zone.
So, off to see the diabetes educator, and off to the pharmacy to get myself one of those finger-sticker thingies. Gotta cut back on carbs, eat more protein, and if I snack, it needs to be planned and balanced. And I gotta stick my finger twice a day.
And it’s worked.
I’ve changed my diet, my blood sugar readings are way down, and at my one-month follow-up visit with the educator, she was extremely happy with my progress. Star pupil.
Here’s the thing. Diabetes is an insidious disease; you can have high blood sugar for years before it starts wreaking havoc on your body.
But I have good health insurance. I can see my doctor regularly for a minimal co-pay. And that’s how my diabetes was detected early, before it began to destroy me. And thanks to my insurance, I have access to prescription drugs, finger-stickers, and informational support.
If I didn’t have insurance, or if I had the really crappy kind, I wouldn’t have been seeing my doctor regularly. I would have gone on eating a lousy diet until the diabetes was kicking my ass. In the short run I would have cost the system nothing; but within a few years I would have become a very expensive charity case.
And, if you care about the human dimension, I would have been in really bad shape and may well have died young.
The moral of the story: Universal health care. It’s the right thing to do. And if it’s done correctly, it’s cheaper than the alternative. Let’s do it.
aren’t begging to shed their insurance and place the burden of administration elsewhere. I own a business and the last thing I want to be doing is spending any admin time and admin money on a product totally unrelated to my business’ product. Bizarre.
Glad you caught it earl, jvwalt. keep up the good work asking tough questions. keep bothering the governor about placing the tax burden on the poor. bug him about capital gains rates and carried interest, and financial transaction taxes.
Good for you, JV, for taking it seriously and doing what’s necessary to prolong your life in both years and quality.
One of the big risks is heart disease — it comes with the diabetes territory. So, exercise, too.
And, often, the alertness about and perennial focus on what to eat, what not to eat wear thin after a few years. Easy to slip back. Harder to do the protein thing when you’re vegetarian or vegan. Nuts are my friend.
And, yes, universal healthcare. Too easy these days to be treated like a number on a profit-and-loss sheet, even when you have what most people would consider “decent” insurance. So what if we have to pay $5,000 out of fixed-income pockets before the insurance begins to kick in.
But I’m not expecting much from any plan with Scrooge Shummy behind it. It either doesn’t matter to him that individual people with (or without) families will have to choose between gassing up the car to get to a job and going to the doc; or he’s been so economically “comfortable” his whole life that having to make such choices doesn’t exist in his reality.
NanuqFC
Insurance. An ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the table. ~ Ambrose Bierce
So, statistically speaking, the poorer you are, the more likely you are to have health issues…and, of course, the less likely you are to be insured.
Oh…and, as income distribution is growing steadily worse in this country, this will be true of more and more of the population unless we go considerably further in fixing things than even the most optimistic framing of the Healthcare for America predicts.
I wish that old political rallying cry about how the U.S. is the best place to live actually were true.
It can be; but only for those who can afford it.