How Losing My Health Insurance Was The Best Thing for My Health

by Jeanne Russell

Before I lost my health coverage, I never paid much attention to my type II diabetes. Sure I took my medicine, visited the doctor as instructed, and made many half hearted attempts to lose weight but I never really took responsibility for the management of my own health care.

First off while I was overweight, my medication kept my numbers low. I always got complements for my A1c results (the ones that show your average blood sugar levels over the preceding 3 months). And I only checked my own levels occasionally. I ate plenty of ice cream, cake, and candy, rationalizing that sugar was sugar. I told myself that any carbs I ate would turn into sugar anyway, so I might as well be happy. I did not pay attention to natural blood sugar stabilizers because I did not want to interfere with my diabetes medicine.

Well all that changed when I became self-employed. I had been prepared to pay the $400 a month it would cost to insure myself. What I did not realize was that I would have to pay that premium each month for a whole year before my diabetes was covered. That meant for a whole year I would have to pay insurance plus pay for all doctor visits relating to diabetes and all tests related to diabetes. The kicker was that I also had to pay full price for all of my prescriptions! Yikes! I was not even into profitability without all those expenses. My medications alone cost several hundred dollars a month! I was in shock!

It was not long before I couldn’t pay my insurance any more and I couldn’t pay for doctor’s visits or tests or even medicine. Meanwhile, I had all sorts of other problems and issues to deal with so I just let it go. It was pretty irresponsible, I know, but that is what I did.

I wasn’t testing my blood so I did not know what my numbers were but I did begin to gain more weight and I started to feel listless and tired and before long I acknowledged what I knew all along. I needed to take responsibility for my own health and take action to improve it.

So I did some research; and let me tell you, even with the internet it was difficult to get a consensus on self-help. For example, if I was going to get my blood glucose levels under control, I would need to check my levels many times each day. I knew that my morning blood glucose reading should be below 120 mg/dl but what about two hours after lunch or at bed time? It took me weeks to find that out. All of the official web sites always say to check with your doctor on everything. Once I established my goals, I needed to re-educate myself on how to eat and I needed to find an exercise regimen that was flexible enough for me to follow. Next I started researching the effect of certain vitamins and herbs on a diabetics’ blood sugar. My goodness there is a lot of research out there! I finally decided to pick two sources and follow their recommendations and see what happened. I am documenting my experiences on my web-site, http://www.jeannerussell.com. Hopefully others can learn a little from my mistakes.

That is where I am now. I am still in transition but I have already lost over 10 lbs. and I feel wonderful. My levels are still not where I want them to be but they are getting lower all the time and I am in control. I would love to have health insurance again and I am working towards that. But never again will I blindly choose pills over healthy living. I truly believe that losing my insurance might have been the best thing that could have happened for my long term health and well being. It woke me up.

-- Jeanne Russell is a mother writer and entrepreneur, She is founder of http://www.jeannerussell.com ( a website devoted to self-improvement and success) and also http://www.stressandthesinglemom.com

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