@Blue , please private message me.
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Be “that patient” - it is your healthcare. But as I mentioned before, the Care program should be doing all this for you. I have experience with all of them, and I have never heard them ask a patient to get the forms filled out.
Go to any endos office, explain your situation, and they will help - at least any good one will.
It is part of life. Sometimes even I have to decide which medicines are an absolute necessity, and which are “nice to haves”. $10 is $10…
Have you asked your pastor about the church’s food pantry? Or if they have emergency funds to help a little. The food pantry would at least remove the food expense from your shoulders.
A TDHCA Section 8 voucher would help with housing closer to work. Might consider that. Or the Montgomery County Crisis Center can help with food and temporary housing. I know a shelter isn’t the best place to be, but it is better than living in your car.
Better than the none that you have now.
I’d call the helpline and apply. The county programs are legislated by the State of Texas. You might be surprised at the services you can get:
http://www.wcchd.org/services/health_services/healthcare_helpline.php
http://services.211texas.org/ResourceView2.aspx?org=72605&agencynum=29124417
At the worst, you will get primary healthcare you aren’t getting now, and a doctor who can get you samples of prescriptions (all doctors can request samples from any drug company. They don’t have to "deal with a pharmaceutical company).
Stop the steroids for now. Aleve will give the same pain relief benefits to you. Figure out diabetes first, then work on RA.
I would not mix NPH, R, Humalog, and Novolog insulins.
Again - apply at Williamson county - some health coverage is better than none.
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As has been said already…BE THAT PATIENT. If my sons life were on the line, you better believe I’d be knocking down doors to speak with people and I wouldn’t give two craps whether it was correct or not, or what the optics of it looked like. Life is precious and sometimes it’s only viewed as a number or a statistic to those who aren’t investing in the life at risk.
We MUST be our (and our kids) biggest advocates. As the saying goes “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”
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I will say it again. Call Lilly. They should be running this down for you.
But apply for medical assistance in Williamson County. You will at least get doctors visits and may get a doctor who will point you towards the community resources that can help you.
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You may or may not completely run out of beta cells. Everyone is different. However, most people who have had Type 1 diabetes for several years will die without any insulin on board. Eventually, ketones would develop and become toxic (DKA - diabetic ketoacidosis). With no insulin on board, this can happen fairly quickly (within 1 day).
We’re suggesting lots of options because of how serious it is when someone with diabetes is not on insulin. It sounds like you’ve explored a lot of the options, but you may not be as familiar with some of the ones suggested here. @kmichel and @elver have extensive knowledge on resources for people without insurance. I highly suggest looking into their recommendations.
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Ditto!
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@elver is blushing now… Gosh guys…
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and they are made by Novo Nordisk…
@elver, wrong thread 
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that’s what I get for using my phone…fat thumbs…
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From a purely personal experience, I can assure you that it is a very real, and very frightening way to exist…
There many more life threatening medical conditions other than just diabetes out there.
Even as a type 2, one of the first things I researched was the availability of low cost R and N insulin as a backup plan, before I would agree to even consider the insulin only course of treatment suggested by my PCP. My particular insurance company has more than once withheld authorization for the Lantus I was taking previously, sometimes for weeks at a time, due to noting more than administrative paperwork.
I’ve also had my health insurance canceled due to administrative paperwork foul-ups twice in the past 4 years. In both cases it took weeks to straighten out.
Just knowing that there is something to fall back on, is important. The stories of last year’s hurricane victims having to resort to these types of insulin due to loss of their normal insulin supply were real stories, about real people, right here in America.
So you just described some terrible experiences regarding your access to your medications that were caused BY your insurance and the backup plan you devised, which seems pretty straightforward, should your insurance cease to exist… sounds to me like your insurance isn’t the entity that’s keeping you alive
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Another option that can yield really good results if you’re in a metro area- enroll in a clinical study. Most studies are safe and you get assigned a clinician that tightly monitors your data. I did one recently and it was a great experience and they supplied all my insulin and testing materials, labs and doc visits, everything free. And you get paid.
Also, there used to be a form of Medicaid specifically for chronic illness- like diabetes and cancer. Not sure if it’s still around or just available up to a certain age.
I quit my job in Jan and went on the state website and applied for Medicaid. I had no issue. I typed in that I make $0 and was instantly approved for 100% coverage. They’ve paid all my office visits and for my retinopathy specialist. For those with retinopathy, they typically want you to take Avastin (cheapest, but adequate), however, I’d been responding well to Eylea for over a year and my doc office put in the auth and I was approved, no problem.
The thing is, as unhelpful as the government insurance is known to be, they want you to take your insulin and your retinopathy drugs because they’d rather pay for you now in short term than have you go blind or lose a leg or something. So my $5000 an eye retinopathy treatment got approved, because I’m cheaper as a sighted person.
I had issues getting my CGM supplies because the company I picked to provide Medicaid didn’t partner with any suppliers. They said I could simply switch to another that does, no problem.
I also had no issue getting Lantus and Humalog on Medicaid. There’s also some new basal out that are more affordable than Lantus if you take that and you can get a coupon on GoodRX. Contacting the company though, like Lilly or Sanofi tends to be cheaper or free, however if you used that in the past you may have reached a limit.
I’m in the weird place that to go back to work, I need a job paying 75,000 and premium paid. Because of my retinopathy, i will hit the out of pocket max in two appointments (one for each eye). I actually picked Eylea because it was so expensive so I would hit my out of pocket on the first month and then I wouldn’t have to worry about paying 1000 for my insulin at the pharmacy. Doctor office you can bill to the account and slowly pay off, but pharmacy requires pay in full so I found it easier. Being diabetic is just a game of strategy but I don’t like playing games with my life.
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Thanks for your response. It’s good to hear that your transition to Medicaid happened so smoothly! Your coverage sounds pretty decent too!
Welcome to the site! If you’d like, you can introduce yourself here:
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