Why I'm Not (Yet) Supporting #MyPumpChoice

This week, there was a bit of a brew-ha-ha over the joint announcement [see HERE for the news] from United Healthcare (the largest for-profit healthcare insurer in the U.S.) and Medtronic over insulin pump coverage, specifically that United Healthcare had chosen Medtronic to be the company's "preferred" insulin pump supplier, hence other pump and pump supply brands like Roche, Tandem or Animas would generally not be covered.  Yes, they buried it on page 7 and kind of did it on the down low which was sleazy, kind of like banks do with changes in terms to credit cards or new fees being added on your checking account.  That wasn't the best way to share the news.Being a former Animas (now Johnson & Johnson) pump user, I guess could have been a little upset over the matter, but my reaction was much more of "so what?" instead.Why?Well, my perspective has been shaped by my 40 years of living with Type 1 diabetes (yes, the summer of 2016 will be my 40th diabetes anniversary, but I haven't claimed any medals that I'm probably entitled to from either Joslin or Lilly, and I'm not sure I even want to, but that's a separate discussion).  When I was diagnosed as a 7-year old child in 1976, things were a little different, but frankly, in spite of the many claims about how much different things are today, treatment today is really not different by all that much.Relevant HistoryFor one thing, when I was diagnosed, there were exactly 2 brands of insulin sold in the U.S....
Source: Scott's Web Log - Category: Endocrinology Tags: insulin pump UnitedHealthCare 2016 Medtronic test strips United Healthcare Source Type: blogs