Young & Uninsured: A Personal Story
In an upcoming episode, we are looking at the young and uninsured. People like Edward E-Nunu. He's a graduate student, pursuing a Master's degree in Education at Claremont Graduate University. He's also a diabetic. Edward attended Etiwanda High in San Bernardino County. He went on to graduate from UC Riverside. Here's his story:
In 1996 I was diagnosed with Juvenile, Type I Diabetes. My diagnosis came after I began experiencing different diabetic symptoms like frequent urination and excessive thirst. Following my diagnosis, I was fortunate enough to be insured under my parents. Under their insurance, my prescription needs for a glucometer and chemstrips to monitor my daily blood sugar records, as well as syringes and vials of insulin came with little cost or difficulty. For years I went without worry as I became involved in high school athletics and extra-curriculars for college. Visits to the doctor became a challenge as I attended school away from home. But when I graduated from college in 2006 my health situation changed dramatically.
Upon graduation, my coverage under my parents was dropped and left me with few options. Filling an existing prescription for insulin went from being a trouble-free and inexpensive task to being very problematic and pricey. Diabetes, as is the situation for other prescription-dependent illnesses and diseases, forced me to find a way to get my insulin on my own. Pharmacy visits to Rite-Aid seemed useless without an insurance card to help with retail prescription costs. Purchasing insulin affected not only my livelihood, but also my pocketbook.
My mom suggested I look into a county health program for low-income individuals in the San Bernardino area. Through this program, I was only able to get my prescriptions filled after visiting the emergency room or scheduling an appointment with a local physician. Unfortunately, these emergency room visits lasted at least 6-8 hours - just to get a prescription. It took additional time to get the prescription filled the county pharmacy. Even worse, the appointments scheduled with local physicians often required me to wait months for an urgently needed prescription.
As a result, I had no choice but to occasionally pay for high-priced pharmaceuticals or suffer the “health” consequences. Being an uninsured diabetic put me at a complete disadvantage if I were to ever become sick or injured. I injured my fingers in a recreational football game and was forced to visit the emergency room. What appeared to be a routine check-in on my fingers at the County Hospital resulted in a three-day hospital stay for an infection and an elevated blood sugar reading.
Despite being uninsured, my participation in this county program has been beneficial to my health. This may offer a solution to other individuals in this same situation. Searching for county hospitals that provide medical assistance to the uninsured seems to be the most cost effective means of obtaining treatment and needed medication.
