Sleeping with the Insurance Company

Um, yeah..So this is something of a partially coherent rant.  You’ve been warned!

Throughout the last two years, I’ve often been asked what I thought the hardest part of living with type 2 diabetes and congestive heart failure is.

For the longest time, my answer was simply not having my family around to help me cope with things.  Sure, I had April and her parents here with me, so it’s not like I’ve been completely alone. However, MY family lives more than 200 miles away. And not having them near has been pretty rough.

Having put a great deal of thought into the question, though, I have to admit that not having my family around pails in comparison to the difficulties of trying to figure out how to pay for everything that goes along with life with multiple chronic health conditions.

Simply put, the cost of living with this bullshit isn’t cheap.  The drug costs alone are astronomical; not to mention all the testing and treatment supplies that go along with it.   Just ask me or anyone else living with these diseases. We’ll give you an ear full.

I mentioned before that Type 2 diabetes and congestive heart failure aren’t the only chronic conditions in my clusterf@#k of joy.  I’ve got asthma, allergies, severe obstructive sleep apnea, acid reflux and other GI problems, arthritis, and migraines. Just to list a few.  And, I’ve also stated that there’s a long list of medications, etc… that go along with those.  And guess what…they all cost me hundreds of dollars each month, despite the fact that I have insurance.

Shortly after I was diagnosed, I received an information packet about an diabetes management incentive program offered by my health insurance company.  If I followed the requirements of the program, they would cover the cost of diabetes medications, test strips, and other sorts of medications.  It was a 5 level program, and at each level, they would pay for more stuff.  I was rather hesitant about getting into the program; I absolutely hated the idea of an insurance company dictating how I was going to live my life.  What it boiled down to was deciding whether or not I could handle sleeping with the insurance company in exchange for medications and test strips.

Now, before anyone pipes up and says I’m lucky to have insurance and an incentive program like that, let me say this: You’re right! I am quite fortunate in that I have a job and decent health benefits.  I count those blessings each and every day.  Those benefits, however, only go so far.  And like so many other people that I know, I’m still frequently forced to make a lot of tough choices.  Like choosing between getting medications needed to keep me alive and putting food on the table.

Those are scary decisions.  And with so many of us facing those sorts of things, is it really any wonder why depression and other mental health issues are so prevalent  among those with diabetes and other chronic conditions?