Before I lost my health coverage, I never paid much attention to my type II diabetes. Sure I took my medicine, visited the doctor as instructed, and made many half hearted attempts to lose weight but I never really took responsibility for the management of my own health care.

First off while I was overweight, my medication kept my numbers low. I always got complements for my A1c results (the ones that show your average blood sugar levels over the preceding 3 months). And I only checked my own levels occasionally. I ate plenty of ice cream, cake, and candy, rationalizing that sugar was sugar. I told myself that any carbs I ate would turn into sugar anyway, so I might as well be happy. I did not pay attention to natural blood sugar stabilizers because I did not want to interfere with my diabetes medicine.

Well all that changed when I became self-employed. I had been prepared to pay the $400 a month it would cost to insure myself. What I did not realize was that I would have to pay that premium each month for a whole year before my diabetes was covered. That meant for a whole year I would have to pay insurance plus pay for all doctor visits relating to diabetes and all tests related to diabetes. The kicker was that I also had to pay full price for all of my prescriptions! Yikes! I was not even into profitability without all those expenses. My medications alone cost several hundred dollars a month! I was in shock!

It was not long before I couldn