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Thursday, March 27, 2008

What's your deal, Halle?

i know Big Mike posted about this, but i finally figured out how to get videos on the blog.

we love you Halle, but you claim to have cured your diabetes? i was always confused about your condition, but i think you are more confused than me.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

us weekly celebrity

In coming up with diabeteshappens Tyler and I had grand dreams. Obviously if you are looking at this you've seen our newly updated website (in which we passionately try to get the tabloids to purchase a picture of me for a mere 50k. I look good, what can i say. Richie Sambora eat your heart out). Getting celebrities with diabetes to embrace and then endorse our product was a priority. I mean the whole idea of the company came off on the heels of our attendance to the Chris Dudley Basketball Camp for Youth with Diabetes. "Dr. Crash," an NBA vet of 16 years, certainly provides some celebrity pop to our product, but we would be lying if we didn't have our sights on the Bret Michaels's or the Halle Berry's of the world. Celebrity sells. We are in the business of selling. Come on US Weekly. Get in the mix.

Despite our best efforts of trying to entertain Bret we've somehow fallen short. I thought that none have rocked harder than Tyler did in his air guitar of Poison's Nothin' But A Good Time, and we sent Bret a copy of the DVD version of our mini film. We've heard nothing. Apparently he is too busy doing the unskinny bop with his floozies on VH1's Rock of Love. We even purchased one of Bret's diabetic t-shirts...something along the line of thousands of shows, 20 million sugar tests, 10 million insulin injections, one love sort of thing. I don't think he's selling them any more. Which is a major bummer because it was the last image i saw of Bret actually looking like Bret, and not Sebastian Bach. The trouble with Bret is that on his MTV Cribs episode - where he takes us on an inside look into his home - he has NPH in the fridge. Bret, NPH? Are you serious? Bringing the 80s back is ironically cool, but bringing the 90s back with their form of blood sugar regulation is a serious health risk. Though I do salute you on your efforts not to hide your disease Bret. You do a great job of speaking out against it. Just update your insulin cabinet.

And Halle. Oh Halle. You are quite the pretty lady, and congrats on the new born. But why are you saying that you've gone from Type 1 to Type 2 diabetes? If you are just controlling your sugars with diet and exercise I don't think you are eating enough. Get out of LA! Now!

I guess we just won't have any spokesperson - though you can certainly check out our new Chris Dudley t-shirt

Thursday, March 13, 2008

health insurance

Recently got an email suggesting that we discuss health care and what happens when you get knocked off your parents plan. It went a little something like this:

"so you guys should do a post for those who are over 23 and don't have insurance from a job or parent and has diabetes what the hell you did to afford life still. As having just turned 23 and being turned down EVERYWHERE even by the stupid company that has covered me for the past 23 years (10 that have been diabetic). I know about the State of Oregon plan but it is less then average and still retardly expensive. Any hints or tips or general advice would be tight."

These are the sorts of problems that arise when a country's medical decisions are run for profit. Not that great things also don't come out of it - there is little question that America is a world leader in health care change, finding cures, treatment in ERs (even though it rarely feels like it), etc, but it is not beneficial at all for an insurance company to take on a diabetic, cancer patient, etc. This is why you get Michael Moore's "SICKO."

And to be honest with you, I don't have a whole lot of suggestions. I know it's a bad idea to be off of health insurance, especially because then your condition can be called previously existing. As long as you have a plan that protects you and covers the medication that you need, your next subscriber must pick up where the last one left off. However, if you, for any reason, lose your plan, the next provider does not have to pay for your costs because the condition was present before you came to them.

If you have a job, but are looking for a new one you should ask your HR people about COBRA. It's not cheap. At all. Basically you can keep the current health care plan that you have, but you must pay for all of it. Usually your employer picks up most of the tab, and you pay for the plan that you want (HMO, PPO, etc). It's a terrible option, but at least you can remain fully covered. So with that being said, I wonder if you can legitimately be turned down by your current/former provider. I would look into that.

And as this is an election year, and health care as been an increasingly important discussion point amongst the candidates, I think it's critical that we all know as much as we can about what their points of view are on the nature of how health care should be run.

OBAMA

CLINTON

MCCAIN

Here is also a website that lays them out side by side. Not sure if they have an affiliation, but just make sure you read through carefully and get yourself informed.

There has been a lot of discussion about this in our office - politics often times take over for basketball, especially after loses. My colleague Pete Schwethelm came up with, what I think is a great way to describe the way health care should operate in our country. He believes that the postal service has it right. There is a basic plan (USPS) that everyone can partake in. It may not be the best option, but everyone can use it. If you feel that you need something more, better, faster there are other options (Fed-Ex, UPS).

The same could work for a health care system that has a basic outline for everyone, and if you feel you need better coverage, well that cost comes out of your own pocket then. It certainly doesn't lessen the blow for people like us - we'll still be paying top dollar, but at the very least, there is something out there.

Let us know which of the candidate's plans you like the best, and as always, please back your response with some reasons.