Medical Community Turns Against People with T2 Diabetes

On December 13, Catherine Price posted a blog on why you should be depressed about the government's attitude toward diabetes. Whether you are a person with type 1 diabetes, or type 2 diabetes, you owe it to yourself to read it. She listed it as part 1 and I will wait for part 2. In the meantime, I will write my blog about the actions of our medical community and how they are turning against people with type 2 diabetes, especially those not on insulin.

This started in June 2013 and earlier if you listen to ADA's Dr. Robert Ratner. He is quoted back in December 2012 as saying people with type 2 diabetes, not on insulin, did not need to test. He is the tip of the proverbial iceberg of the problems now presenting to people with type 2 diabetes. Next, we have Dr. Alan J. Garber of the AACE who believes people with type 2 diabetes and not on insulin need only rely on A1c tests.

If you think I am angry, you are right. Next, the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) and their “Choosing Wisely” choice of "Don't recommend daily home finger glucose testing in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus not using insulin.” This was in early September. Next, was the AACE entry in “Choosing Wisely” saying almost the same, but allowing for testing for oral medications that cause hypoglycemia.

Now in December, we have the Oregon's Health Evidence Review Commission (HERC) limiting test strips for people with type 2 diabetes. If it had not been for DiaTribe this may have been even worse. DiaTribe at least alerted their subscribers and the Diabetes Online Community about the intention to stop test strips for people with well-managed diabetes.

Then we also hear some of the remarks by members of the HERC and this is very indicative of the attitude of many doctors - “More knowledge for patients is not always better…”, “Lay people just don’t understand these issues…” To this, I ask if the doctors are going to make themselves available 24/7 to answer questions from people with diabetes. Since I know they will not do this, we as patients with diabetes do need to take action and oppose every attempt to limit testing supplies.

This means the battle is on with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), many state medical groups and especially the groups mentioned above that only want people with type 2 diabetes operating in the dark. All these supposedly medical professionals want to do is cause harm and have the complications to treat for steady income.

If the medical community really wanted to reduce medical costs, they would do some education, work more diligently to help diabetes patients, and actually encourage people with diabetes to manage their diabetes.

The doctors now have shown their true colors and we know that we cannot depend on them. They openly declare that diabetes is progressive and that the complications will develop. We know that we need more information, but many of the studies and clinical trails continue to be put behind the pay wall where most cannot afford to see them. Even the ADA and AACE are making things more difficult for people with diabetes, and especially people with type 2 diabetes.