Coverage.
Sitting on the couch with my roommate last night, American Idol playing on the TV, we started musing about our late 20s and how we felt that we needed a change. Both she and I have lived in the same house for 4 years, been at our current jobs for just as long, and are both feeling a little…restless. We both love San Diego and where we live, but four years anywhere can start to feel like a long time. Sometimes a change of scenery is just what your soul needs to feel calm again.
“Maybe I’ll just quit my job and travel for a few months,” she said, a wishful look on her face.
That sounds fantastic. In fact, that sounds like paradise right now. I would love to take some time off, sublet my room, hijack my boyfriend and head off to see the world for a few months. I have a decent savings account – enough to pay for a few plane tickets and hostels at least, so why not set a date and go for it? Oh yeah. Diabetes. Insurance. Money.
I almost never feel held back by having diabetes. I am determined to live a life where having diabetes never stops me from perusing my dreams, and it generally doesn’t. I earned a brown belt in karate and fought in full-contact sparring competitions in college. I lived in Spain with a Spanish family for 5 months. I went to Istanbul with a Turkish doctor’s note last December, no problem. I ran a half marathon last August. But one thing that would be damn near impossible for me to live without is insurance. And to have insurance, I have to have a job. A real job with a serious employer with good coverage. Even if I were self-employed, the cost of private insurance for an individual with diabetes is astronomical. Let’s face it: so-called “pre-existing conditions” are not cheap.
I suppose I could go back to the bare minimum of diabetes care: Lantus and Novolog injections in generic syringes, testing just 4 times a day. With pump supplies costing $1,300 every three months sans insurance, those would be out of the question on a limited budget, as would be CGM. But how can I go back now that I have optimized my care? Certainly, I could live without my fancy devices, but at what price to my control? Aren’t I obligated to do what I must in order to have the best tools possible for my diabetes? Including having a job with great insurance? It would seem irresponsible to downgrade at this point.
I hate the fact that having diabetes limits me from the freedom to “go without” for even a short while. Right now, it’s simply not an option for me to be uninsured, and as I ease in to the last few years of my 20s, I feel like the window of opportunity to be “irresponsible” (e.g. no kids/mortgage) is narrowing. I’d love to go wait tables at a bar in Ibiza for a summer, but how would I pay for my CGM sensors?
I do need to remind myself of a few things here though: 1.) I am lucky enough to have a manageable disease, 2.) I have a great job (any job for that matter!), and 3.) It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Who’s to say that I can’t plan to take a month off at some point to trek the Amazon or take two weeks for a tour of South America? I had a fantastic time for 8 days in Istanbul, and I didn’t have to quit my job to do it. I’ll continue to plan amazing trips when my work and bank account allow, and one day, when I am cured, I just might drop everything and go be a little “irresponsible” for a bit. And by “irresponsible” I mean both traveling the world and eating a cupcake without carb counting or guilt. HA. That will be the day!
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Comments
I am a college student who decided to take a year off after high school and am finishing up my BA in PR at the moment. My health insurance from my mother’s employer dropped when I was 21. I had to go on a COBRA plan. Actually, my parents pay for it, I pay the dentist. I pay $32 for dental (but I always have to pay more whne I go to the dentist) and my parents pay just shy of $600 per month. I hate that they have to, but with taking four classes, an internship, plus an outside part-time job, I don’t meet the full time status to receive benefits. I work retail so it would like be making a part time pay anyways.
I get disgusted when I hear about the one lady who is at work and is pregnant with her 6th & 7th kids, is on welfare, gets all of this housing nonsense, and she got health care ahead of me because she was “more of a threat.” Hello!! It’s called: Cross your legs. I cannot live longer than four days without insulin, yet she can go get knocked up and not worry? Really? So annoying. *sorry for the rant!*
Eileen – rant away! I know what you mean – its so frustrating and part of the issue is that people with diabetes have very different needs – especially when Type 1 and Type 2 get lumped together – and we sometimes don’t get the coverage needed because the care of this disease is not understood. I had to get a special note from my doctor to get 300 test strips a month covered so I can test 10 times a day. Because I test more for better control that will mean fewer complications down the road, I have to get “special permission” or be denied? Makes no sense! I totally hear your frustrations, and you are so lucky to have your parents to help you out – I know you don’t feel good about them paying for it, but like you said, its what you have to do right now. Congrats to you for doing what makes the most sense for your health- no one can do that for us except ourselves! Thanks for your comment and insight.
When I was self employed, I looked for private coverage. What I found as a Type 2 Diabetic and being overwieght that I can’t actually purchase a private health plan until all COBRA coverage is expended and even then its a special law in California that requires Health Insurance companies to cover you, but the costs and the coverage aren’t economically feasable. So for that reason I have decided to return to the corporate world for that lovely low cost group coverage.