http://type2diabetestreatment.net/diabetes-mellitus/ask-dmine-call-for-a-revolution-in-healthcare-access-and-choice/
Welcome back to our weekly advice column, Ask D’Mine, hosted by veteran type 1, diabetes author and educator Wil Dubois.
This week we have a special edition, given the Fourth of July holiday is upon us and many are reflecting on independence, freedom and all things American.
Rather than answering our usual reader questions, Wil offers a take on how our national healthcare system is evolving, and what that means for all of our health, diabetes care, and livelihood.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts on all of this... as you enjoy July 4th, of course.
Got your own questions? Email us at AskDMine@diabetesmine.com
Fourth of July Edition: On Freedom and Diabetes
Monday is Independence Day. The holiday that should get us thinking about what it means to be free people. To me, independence is about having the freedom to make choices. To be able to chart my own destiny, free from oppression.
But I’m sad to say — on this marking of our country’s 240th anniversary of independence — that I feel like I’m losing mine. I’m being manipulated by people in power. I’m being robbed of choice — and by association, of my humanity.
It’s not a king on a throne in a distant land that’s oppressing me. It’s men in the shadows right here in my own free country who hide in high-rise buildings on Wall Street, looking at me as a number, not a human being with a beating heart and a vibrant soul. Men who make decisions on what I can do, and can’t do, based on lining their own pocketbooks.
I’m talking about the oppression of the insurance formulary.
People I have no access to decide what medications I may have for my chronic health condition, and which ones I may not have. They determine which tools I can have access to, and which not. These are medications and tools I need for my life, my liberty, and my pursuit of happiness.
If that’s not slavery, then what is?
As a person with diabetes (like most of you reading), my choices of medicines and tools have dissolved as the years have passed. As a clinician, my power to select what is right for my patients has eroded year after year after year. But the fact is, insulins are not interchangeable, and health tools are not universal. I know myself. I know my needs. I know my patients and their families. I know their needs. I know their beating hearts and vibrant souls. You men in the shadows do not.
How dare you tell me what they cannot have to stay healthy, when these medications and tools exist and can help them? How dare you tell me what they must take, when you have no visibility into their health challenges? How dare you require them to hit rock bottom before you will give them what they need to thrive? Instead of tying my hands, you should be shaking them. I am killing myself to make your “members” healthy. You, of all people, should see the profit in that. Diabetes, left unchecked, is a slow and expensive killer.
Because of these restrictions, I’ve become more soldier than medicine man, but I’m poor soldier. I’m worn out from battle fatigue, and bitter about fighting the wrong enemy. My combat isn’t against this relentless illness, but against an unrelenting bureaucracy. In other words, I spend more time fighting insurance companies than fighting disease, and with every form I’m forced to fill out, diabetes advances on the battlefield unchecked. It infuriates me to see the human carnage that’s resulting from short-sighted profit-mongering.
I’m feeling the need for a revolution. Maybe the grassroots campaign #DiabetesAccessMatters will start making a difference on this. But I don"t know. I personally feel the need, but don"t have the willpower to take it on. I’m so battered by the daily struggle that it’s all I can do to survive day-to-day, much less change the world.
Our Statue of Liberty bears a quotation on her base that reads in part, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Sadly, this describes me, and the bulk of the PWD (people with diabetes) population in the United States. Yes, we have our fierce advocates, thank God, but most of us are too tired, too poor, and too desperate to dredge up the energy for yet another fight in this eternal battle to preserve our health independence.
We don’t need just a revolution. We need a revolutionary army.
This is not a medical advice column. We are PWDs freely and openly sharing the wisdom of our collected experiences — our been-there-done-that knowledge from the trenches. But we are not MDs, RNs, NPs, PAs, CDEs, or partridges in pear trees. Bottom line: we are only a small part of your total prescription. You still need the professional advice, treatment, and care of a licensed medical professional.Disclaimer: Content created by the Diabetes Mine team. For more details click here.
Disclaimer
This content is created for Diabetes Mine, a consumer health blog focused on the diabetes community. The content is not medically reviewed and doesn"t adhere to Healthline"s editorial guidelines. For more information about Healthline"s partnership with Diabetes Mine, please click here.
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