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Are You Frustrated With Your Healthcare?

in The Too Busy to Diet Blog on April 10, 2017

Are You Frustrated With Your Healthcare?

I am writing my blog today to write about my utter frustration with the healthcare system under Obamacare! I want to share Peggy Noonan’s excellent editorial from the Wall Street Journal 3/25/17 edition at https://patriotpost.us/opinion/48182. Read it if you feel like you are alone with this mess that is called healthcare. I am sure when you are finished you will find yourself in the same situation. You are either crying or screaming for a solution because having to deal with it for one more day is entirely too much time.

Peggy Noonan’s editorial was so helpful to me after trying unsuccessfully to navigate through my own personal health care mess. I am stuck with the only Obamacare option in Illinois that would possibly work for me. There is one other option, but it is even worse than the one we chose. And of course, I am paying for almost everything out of pocket. If you have your insurance from your employer, you most likely do not understand what I am talking about. But for those of us stuck with Obamacare, it is no easy road.

Since Obamacare started, I have had five insurance companies. Four of them dropped out of the exchange, and one went bankrupt. My doctors are not in the plans, I have had to change pharmacies, have had to change distributors for medical supplies, and it is almost impossible to keep up with the multiple changes. So now, I have changed the name to Obama NO care!

I have had Type1 Diabetes for 50 years. I have done a good job with maneuvering a difficult disease with all of the challenges it presents. These include: blood sugar monitoring, insulin shots or insulin pump therapy, doctor visits, dealing with diabetes companies for supplies, advise, or trouble shooting, and managing other diabetes comorbidities that require constant attention as well.

Despite the challenges, I have no major diabetes complications, have had 2 successful pregnancies, became a dietitian with a Master’s Degree, worked at 2 major Chicago Medical Centers, and have had my own consulting firm for over 35 years. I have also been very fortunate to travel the world and experience many things that those without diabetes have not had the opportunity to experience.

Nothing I have had to do to manage my diabetes has compared to my horrible time with Obama No Care. It is a constant struggle to work with the insurance companies, distributors of diabetes supplies, doctor offices, and the changing rules for filling prescriptions at the pharmacy. It has become a nightmare.

Talk about ANXIETY, it is difficult enough to have to worry about having either severe low blood sugars or high blood sugars that can be life-threatening, but to deal with all of the health care players makes ANXIETY an art form.

The price of insulin at $300/vial is a constant worry for anyone with diabetes. But those in Congress are oblivious to the ANXIETY that this causes those of us who have been stricken by a disease that no one would ever ask for. But the majority of us accept it with grace, knowing that if we got to pick our disease we may have picked a disease even worse.

But I would like everyone to think about what is needed for the new Obama No Care program. And I would like all those in Congress to think about the ANXIETY that the failure of this program has caused for those of us who depend on this insurance. Again, if your employer provides you with your insurance, it will not seem like a big deal, but you have probably experienced insurance change, higher deductibles, and also higher contributions. But you most probably have friends or family stuck with Obamacare and their health depends on reliable coverage.

What we need now is to stop the fighting between Republicans, between Republicans and Democrats, between whether we should repeal and replace, or simply amend what we have now to make it better.

Americans depend on good health care and we deserve good health care.
But it is not going to happen without everyone working together. To allow anything else is just: UNAMERICAN!

Jacqueline King, MS, RDN, CDE, FADA