Following a comment on Liz’s article on porcine insulin, I immediately felt a rush of compassion for our American diabetic brothers and sisters. 😥 It must be so difficult when you have to pay for all your insulin, as well as the means to use it. Perhaps our American correspondents can answer a few questions for me; is such a long term problem covered by medical insurance? Surely the cost of treatment must exceed the premiums? What happens if you don’t have any insurance? I have this vision of having to burgle houses or mug old ladies just to get the next insulin fix, never mind heroin! Is the ‘American Way’ really so much better than our NHS, with all its faults?
I agree with every word of your article @Alison, all I would add is that the NHS shouldn’t need to be driven by profit, it should be driven by the wish to be the best! I would attribute 95% of the problems in the NHS to bad management. The upper echelons of the organisation are overloaded with mediocre people trying to build their own little empires, whilst the people at the ‘sharp end’ are overloaded with work and bureaucracy, but it’s still by far the best when compared to the American system.
Am currently on hols in Florida. Best thing is excuse to wear cargo shorts with 100 pockets to cram my kit into.
Anyway I just popped into CVS pharmacy (like Boots)to have a look at the kit they had. Highlights were full selection of meters and strips mostly same as UK but with some different names (am gonna buy a cool looking one), and a HOME HbA1c tester (too expensive for impulse buying).
Was also a selection of “Carb blocker” pills that I gave a really wide berth.