The high cost of staying alive
Although it pains me to admit it, the truth is that I’m part of the horde of Americans who are very poor health care consumers. My husband is a pump-carrying Type 1 diabetic, which was previously known as Juvenile Diabetes because it typically manifests in children and young adults. His body produces no insulin, the hormone that moves glucose from the bloodstream to the rest of the body. Type 1 is the rarest form of diabetes — only about 5 percent of diabetics in the U.S. are Type 1 — and it is, in a word, nasty. He must constantly monitor and regulate his blood sugar levels to stave off complications like nerve damage, kidney disease, blindness, poor blood flow and more. Even so, there’s no guarantee such complications won’t…