Posted on 03/17/2011 7:49:24 PM PDT by Eva
The future tragedies of government health care will include today's many warnings about how it operates in practice. The subsidize-mandate-over regulate insurance model is imploding in Massachusetts. Then there's Washington state, where a government board may decide that modern medicine is too expensive for kids with diabetes.
Seriously. In 2006, Washington created a board to scrutinize the cost-effectiveness of various surgeries and treatments, known as the Health Technology Assessment program. At a hearing today, the panel will debate glucose monitoring for diabetic children under 18. In other words, the board is targeting the fundamental standard of diabetes care that has been the established medical consensus for at least three decades.
This state issue deserves far more scrutiny, if only because ObamaCare and the stimulus devoted billions of dollars to comparative effectiveness research. As President Obama has so often put it, the idea is to pit Treatment X against Treatment Y and find out "what works and what doesn't." In theory, it sounds great. But the Health Technology Assessment is an example of how comparative effectiveness will work in the real world, as the political system tries to find ways to restrict or limit treatment to control entitlement spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Agree with you. I’ve a family member who developed diabetes at age 45 and is now insulin dependent. He was eating over 5,000 calories a day and losing weight dropped to 119 pounds and ended up in ICU. Had a glucose level of 650 and until the event never realized the symptoms he had were for diabetes. We thought he had cancer.
It took him almost two years to find the right balance between diet and activity to keep his HA1c within safe ranges, i.e. he keeps his under 7.0. He uses the prefilled insulin pins, not a pump, and is back to his normal 145 lbs, with excellent cholesterol, blood pressure et al....
He has developed a dietary plan, to compliment his daily scheduled activities, that he keeps with very few deviations. From talking with him the Atkins Diet would be a no go. He not only measures his carb intake but the fat, caloric and fiber content of what he eats. He evens knows the “quality” of the fat in certain products and how it effects his glucose level. Fatty foods can keep one’s insulin level elevated because it slows digestion of the food.
He never eats out unless the restaurant has a menu on line so he can make his choice before he arrives. Avoids meats, dairy products or anything that does not tell him the carb and fat content per serving.
He rolls his eyes when he hears all the “chattering noise” about what helps diabetics because from his experience lifestyle changes for diabetics differ depending on the indivual, i.e. one size does not fit all, and all the blogs/chats/medical “news” one hears revolve around Type II diabetes and obesity, not insulin dependent diabetics, nor the fact that more than diet is necessary to control diabetes and prevent its potential destruction of the body, i.e. nerve, eye, kidney damage.
The other day he and I were discussing diabetes and
he mentioned what he thought were the biggest detriments to diabetics’ health 1) the unwillingness to make a total lifestyle change in order to keep glucose levels in check and 2) some insulin dependent diabetics instead of making such changes rationalize their choices by saying “I’ll just take more insulin”.
Charles, this article is discussing ADOLESCENTS, not adults who should be wise enough to follow a strict diet. Do you know any adolescents that ALWAYS do everything that is good for them? Do you think that those kids should be put at risk to cut health insurance costs?
Apparently, you don’t care.
So, you think that articles critical of Obamacare and those that post them, should be referred to the White House????
How many times have you reported me????
How many others on FreeRepublic have you and r9 reported to the Obama administration, or is the website at the White House operated by the SEIU?
How many others have you enlisted to report on anti-Obamacare posts?
This article hit a nerve with the disruptors last night, so I know that it is a really important article. One poster called me a liar for posting it and pinged a whole list of his buddies who joined the attack without even reading the article.
So, let's give it another try, today. Please click on the link to the whole article and evaluate it for yourself.
I agree and it is much more than just the adolesence too. You see puberty hormones and everythign else that is going on at that age also effect how the insulin works. One day they can cause it to crash another day rise uncontrollably.At that age one day you may be longing around and doing nothing the next day up and doing everything you can fit into a day.To me it is frightening that they even are considering this as somethng to save money with.This will kill some of them who may have to spend time alone.
I think that you are correct, that while monitoring is essential for adolescents, the health boards would like to limit the monitoring for everyone once they get single payer.
Diabetics are definitely being targeted. I think that Michelle Obama’s obesity campaign is aimed at preventing diabetes. The sad part is that Atkins type low carb diets would never, ever be suggested by the same people who want to cut the monitoring.
I wasn’t asking why you were pinged to this thread.
I ask an honest question and this is how you respond.
Then I guess it was late and you got snippy.
AND then you still don’t answer the question.
I have seen it before and I did NOT forget it.
It is NOT new to me.
And you didn’t answer the question. Not unusual.
Did you vote for Obama?
I know and I am very afraid it is like they think that all diabetes is caused by obesity when it is not.Type 1 is thought to be an autioimmune diease and no amount of dieting or exercising will cure it.
I think you are right in that chris.
I remember when they first were finding out HOW someone got Type I. I believe it was a kind of flu that hurts the pancreas. The damage is enough to prevent it from making insulin. That is how they now think at Type I starts.
And diet will not work on that. It is a sure death sentence to say that only diet will work. That is for Type II’s ONLY.
I was just reviewing posts on this article as well as the comments on the WSJ comment board.
I am wondering is it possible that type I diabetes more often affects White kids, while type II affects more Blacks?
There was some doctor that seems to do actuarial type work for medical groups, posting on the WSJ about the article didn’t separate type I and type II diabetes. I told him that the article didn’t separate them because WA state does not separate them and that the article was actually referring to Type I, childhood diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is caused by the body’s failure to produce insulin. In type 1 the patient MUST take insulin to replace that which their body does not produce.
Type 2 is the one that is linked to insulin resistance.
May I safely assume you follow your own dietary advice?
I am going to agree with you that following a proper diet will help regulate your numbers even for Type I diabetes. However constant testing must be done to know what your numbers are as odd things can raise your numbers. My grandson is Type I and his numbers can fluctuate wildly from fruit, especially bananas. He is supposed to eat fruit- and being a growing boy he is supposed to eat a balanced diet to include more carbs than recommended for adults. His insulin has to be adjusted from meal to meal in order to know how much insulin he needs. I do NOT recommend that people stop testing or decrease testing. My grandson was not diagnosed until he was in a coma- I sure don’t want to ever go through that again.
I actually think it would be useful if the two conditions had completely different names. They have similar consequences, but completely different causes and treatments. It just confuses people to refer to both of them as diabetes.
Eating fruit in any significant quantity, and any processed carbs at all, is a huge mistake for any diabetic, and especially for a type 1.
Type II diabetes can be cured by not consuming fake fats, and avoiding most vegetable oils in general. It takes time to do because it requires cellular replacement and cell repair. The link below will get you on the right track.
http://www.cancertutor.com/Diabetes/Diabetes_Type_II.htm
Thank you!
I have read some of this, and I know I had heard about how the wrong fats make cell membranes rigid. Every bit of information helps.
The Juvenile diabetes foundation has said that before that type 2 should have been named something else. Type 1 was the first diagonised and diabetes it was later when they added the numbers.
NO it isn’t.Do you know anything at all about type 1 because nearly everything you’ve said is wrong about type 1.
The only problem is that the article is referring to typeI, childhood onset diabetes, that cannon be cured by diet.
I am wondering if the medical control panels have another agenda in denying the in home monitoring devices. I wonder if childhood, type I diabetes has a racial component.
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