“I swear, I may just burn down that fucking insurance company. My doctor put me on two types of insulin, lantus and humalog. The lantus was free at the pharmacy. The humalog? $1052. Because Priority Health hasn’t made up their minds yet whether to cover the humalog pens or not. It’s time to start hanging insurance company CEOs in the public square. Fuck them, every single goddamn one of them.”
I take it he doesn’t use a pump? Those tend to be fast-acting only; at least I don’t think my partner has injected a single unit of anything else since he was in high school.
As for prices, a 10ml glass of 100U/ml is regulated to at most $28 here, and there is a system where certain drugs and equipment (like, say, insulin and pump consumables) count against a maximum yearly payment. For things on that list you never pay more than 39% of the sticker price, the government subsidizes the rest; never more than $60 per drug store visit, and when your yearly total passes $260 the rest will be refunded (early next year).
He can’t get a pump until he has his blood sugar under better control. And he’s 16 and really really bad at controlling it. He’s always hungry and he hates doing the tests so unless we watch him do it, he’ll just lie and spike himself.
Right. I never really understood that argument, since having a pump in itself makes it easier to control. It sounds like he’d also benefit from a CGM, so he could just look at the number instead of drawing blood all the time … but that’s probably also unlikely to happen.
Oh well. I do hope he pulls himself together; good control is kind of the difference between a long life with some annoyances vs. being sick and crippled.
Ooh man have we tried. Teenagers are really not good at understanding long term consequences. Like, he also has celiac disease, but he NEVER cheats on that diet because the consequences are instantly apparent. But he feels fine if his sugar’s high, so he blows us off.
Where in the US is it possible to tell, house-to-house, who voted for whom or which way on an issue? Isn’t that totally against the law? In NC, we can’t even take a picture of our 18 year old’s first time voting (not that she would have let us anyway).
I think he likely is confused. It is possible in many states to see who has registered as a member of each party (and therefore has the privilege of voting in that party’s primary election).
My party affiliation has been strategic for a long time. Where I live, few local offices have contested primaries in the party that I’m most inclined to support in the general election. Moreover, my state has a late primary. Almost never is the race for Presidential nominee till in contention by the time of the primary. My interests are best served by voting for the least insane candidates that the other party is standing for the local offices. I don’t have to vote for those bar stewards in the general election.
I could imagine Sanofi using the information about party affiliation, but it would cut with a very dull knife in my case and the case of a good many of my colleagues.
Another trick that companies play is to solicit/demand employee contributions to a company PAC. That’s totally illegal , but they do it anyway and get away with it. They claim that it’s entirely voluntary (not quite!) and that your contribution is private (it’s anything but). I’m near enough to retirement that I refuse as a matter of principle. If they fire me, they might be doing me a favour.
Does he, by any chance, also have vitiligo? If so, it’s probably the same set of autoimmune entertainment my partner has. Enjoy the likely hypothyroidism in the future, I guess.
The blood sugar thing, though … uhmyeah. I thought walking around at 20+ (360+) for more than a few hours led to some modestly unpleasant ketone effects? Still, the “teen boy tries rebelling against his blood sugar” thing is apparently super-common; not that that helps.
