LifeAfterDx--Diabetes Uncensored

A internet journal from one of the first T1 Diabetics to use continuous glucose monitoring. Copyright 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

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Location: New Mexico, United States

Hi! I’m William “Lee” Dubois (called either Wil or Lee, depending what part of the internet you’re on). I’m a diabetes columnist and the author of four books about diabetes that have collectively won 16 national and international book awards. (Hey, if you can’t brag about yourself on your own blog, where can you??) I have the great good fortune to pen the edgy Dear Abby-style advice column every Saturday at Diabetes Mine; write the Diabetes Simplified column for dLife; and am one of the ShareCare diabetes experts. My work also appears in Diabetic Living and Diabetes Self-Management magazines. In addition to writing, I’ve spent the last half-dozen years running the diabetes education program for a rural non-profit clinic in the mountains of New Mexico. Don’t worry, I’ll get some rest after the cure. LifeAfterDx is my personal home base, where I get to say what and how I feel about diabetes and… you know… life, free from the red pens of editors (all of whom I adore, of course!).

Friday, October 26, 2007

Laugh or cry

Levemir basal insulin for Lee, $35 per month.
Humalog fast-acting insulin for Lee, $55 per month.
Synthroid for Lee, $15 per month.
Lipitor for Lee, $35 per month.
Lisonipril for Lee, $10 per month.
Zoloft for Lee, $15 per month.
Teststrips for Lee, $30 per month.
CGM Sensors for Lee, $175 per month.
Diltiazem for Debbie, $20 per month.
Metformin for Debbie, $5 per month.
Zzrtec for Debbie, $55 per month.
Zoloft for Debbie, $15 per month.
Teststrips for Debbie, $10 per month.

Being able to make your monthly medication co-pays: Priceless.
For everything else there’s bankruptcy.


(With apologies to the creative team at MasterCard’s advertising agency.)

PS: yes, for those of you who added it up, we really do make $475 per month in medication co-pays alone. That doesn’t include the cost of the insurance, doctor’s visits, OTC vitamins or assorted antibiotics when Rio brings some plague home from kindergarten.

A while back I joked about sitting on the curb with a cardboard sign that said Will work for Health Care. Now I’m finding it’s true; I’m quite literally working for my health care, with well more than half my clinic income going right back into the health care system.

6 Comments:

Blogger Jonah said...

Would getting three months' supplies at a time help?

11:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

s*cks

1:48 PM  
Blogger Lili said...

Ouch! I know what you mean. Just yesterday, the student loan people asked me what my income is, and I answered truthfully: -$28k a year. Heh. Yeah, they weren't expecting that.

3:46 PM  
Blogger Christine said...

Lisinopril and Metformin are both on Walmart's $4 list. I know those are the cheap ones anyways, but $7 saved is $7 saved.

6:45 PM  
Blogger RichW said...

When the auto manufactures said how much the cost of a car was just to pay for workers and retiree benefits someone said that GM, Ford, and Chrysler were selling cars just to support their benefits package.

My blog started out about the book I'm writing but it's become an outlet in support for universal health care. In order to provide universal health care medications will have to be more affordable. It can be done. We just need fewer lobbyists having their way with our congress.

That sounds a little reactionary but it's the truth regardless of how it sounds.

2:48 PM  
Blogger JamesC said...

Hi Lee - just discovered, and LOVE your blog.
And I used to work at McCann-Erickson NY, the agency that developed the Priceless campaign for Mastercard. Adaptations by 'consumers' were much appreciated, and yours could actually be a great ad for them too!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences.
James

7:28 PM  

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