November 30, 2009

Health care plan woes.

My husband's employer brought the hammer down and informed us that they are dropping Tufts Health Care...which of course is the insurance we have. It's also the insurance we love. The coverage has been great- we've never had to pay for an insulin pump, our copays are low, and I actually like talking to the helpful staff at member services (God knows they've heard from me enough over the years).
Now comes the daunting task of reviewing insurance plans. I have 3 choices- all plans offered by Blue Cross, Blue Shield.

A side note: Our dissatisfaction with BCBS is the reason we switched to Tufts in the first place. BCBS sent an outrageous bill totaling upwards of $10,000 to us after the birth of Noah, claiming we had to pay out of pocket for a c-section and 4 day hospital stay. The reason? They had no physical proof of my admittance to the hospital. Seriously? Hey, this baby here isn't physical proof enough for ya? True story.

Ok, so needless to say, my expectations that any of our options is going to offer us a vast improvement over what we currently have are lacking. There's also this scary feeling that I'll miss something, and be stuck with a plan that could possibly hurt Noah health-wise. I've heard so many stories of people with type 1 diabetes fighting with their insurance companies over coverage. What's going to happen when Noah's doctor wants to try a CGM and insurance says "no"? I wouldn't back down from a "no", but I'd rather not have to fight over it in the first place.
I understand and appreciate that we are VERY lucky to have any coverage at all. I want the best possible everything for him, and honestly, I don't want to screw this up.

November 18, 2009

Talk. Listen. Repeat.

Some people like a challenge. It makes them work harder- try to prove something to themselves or others. I guess I fall into that category most of the time, but recently it's been hard for me to get through the D stuff with a smile on my face and my usual unwavering fighting spirit. The numbers make me angry. The cost worries me. I have lost sleep over the minute details of diabetes too many nights to count.

It's no wonder that the needs of the one person in the center of all this- Noah - the most important person, in fact, get lost in the shuffle. My mind is constantly on numbers, strips, ratios, research, money...
Yes, all that is important and won't go away, but I realized recently that paying so much attention to those details has taken my focus away from helping Noah with the challenges he faces every day. I'm so used to being a cheerleader- encouraging Noah to go with the flow and, doing the whole, "we're not afraid of dumb old type 1 !" thing , that I fail to see that he might be struggling in his own way.

It's time to stop, keep quiet and really listen to Noah without jumping up all full of piss and vinegar wanting to conquer his fears. I might be surprised to find he doesn't want a cheerleader...just a mom.