Not Defeatist

I’m not defeated, and my last posts weren’t intended to convey that impression. Just because you are getting screwed doesn’t mean that you have to keep allowing it. I’m going to lose access to at least one doctor. My PCP has fired me from the practice, so I will have to get a new one. I am not sure yet about my endocrinologist.

I have been talking to some doctor friends, ones who work for my employer, and ones who do not. The doctors who DO work for my employer aren’t going to be able to write me a prescription for the more expensive drugs, and the insurance company says that I *have* to use the company’s pharmacy.

Usually, a provider or pharmacy that is not on the preferred list can still be used, albeit at a higher rate. They aren’t doing that here, and it’s being done that way to force patients onto the cheapest plan possible.

There are several loopholes in the system, and I plan on exploiting those. I will know within a month if I can make that work or not. All I know is that I am NOT going on insulin.

In my case, I need to get a doctor that will work with me, PLUS I need to get at least one refill on my medication under the current insurance, so that I have enough to last me until the open enrollment period for my wife’s insurance in July. I know plenty of doctors, but it’s the double hit of doctor PLUS pharmacy that is making it tough.

The rules and laws here are complex, but in complexity, there are loopholes. The more rules there are, the more holes there are to drive through. I have time to explore those, and even though I am screwed, I won’t be screwed forever. I don’t plan on staying that way.

Insurance companies hate diabetics even more than they hate smokers. The reason for this is that diabetics are famous for not complying with doctor instructions, and the disease is a progressive one. You don’t ever become cured of diabetes, the best you can do is manage or delay it. What manages it today will likely not manage it a year or two from now. It requires constant vigilance on the part of the patient and the providers. It’s a lot of work, and most of those who have it do not manage it well and wind up with complications like kidney, eye, heart, and brain problems. They wind up with nervous system problems, bone problems, and GI problems like gastroparesis. Treating all of this is expensive. The faster the patient dies, the cheaper all of that is from an insurance standpoint.

It isn’t that the insurance company is TRYING to kill you. No, they look at costs, and say “Gee, when we give drug X, diabetics cost us $y over their lifetime. When we give drug Z, they cost us $2y over their lifetime. Let’s only allow drug x.” They just don’t bother looking at anything else, it’s a pure monetary decision.

For those reasons, insurance companies WANT you to keep eating like shit and taking insulin, knowing that this will save them money over the long run. That’s why insurance companies want you to eat a regular diet and take cheap medicines like metformin. It’s up to each diabetic to carefully monitor their A1C, find trustworthy doctors who care about their patients, and keep on your insurance company’s ass. No one cares as much about you as you do.

Normal blogging to resume soon.

Update

Shady stuff with my health insurance. The way that health insurance works with large employers is that the employer pays the bills, and the actual insurance company administers the entire thing. It’s cheaper for the employer that way.

I tried to get added to my wife’s insurance. It is outside of her open enrollment period, so I need a letter saying that I am no longer able to see my chosen doctor under my current insurance. No one will put it in writing- not the insurance company, nor my employer’s benefits team.

The insurance company says that the decision to force me to use certain doctors came from my employer’s benefits team. The benefits team says that it came from the insurance company. They both suggested that I go to the insurance benefits webpage and look up my doctor to see that he isn’t on the list. That isn’t good enough- to get coverage, I have to prove that my coverage changed. No one will give me that.

Even worse, even if I wanted to change doctors, it’s snowbird season. Few of the doctors in the area are accepting new patients. Of the ones who are, the next appointment is in June. I pointed out that I only have medications until mid April. I was told “well, you can always go to the emergency room. They can refill your medicine.” I can’t believe that it’s illegal to pay cash for a doctor visit if you have insurance and your insurance won’t pay for it, so your only choice is to start patronizing the emergency room.

No. The emergency room will only give insulin. That’s the point of this. I don’t want to be an insulin dependent diabetic. That is a death sentence, it’s only a matter of time at that point. I have done this for more than 30 years, and I know where that road ends.

I will have to deal with this on my next weekday off. It’s daunting.

Screwed

I am a diabetic, and have been for two decades. I always knew that I would be, mostly because of my family medical history. My Father, his mother, and his father all had diabetes. It killed every one of them before they were 64 years old. I often joke that I lost the genetic lottery. My grandfather died when he was 47 years old. My grandmother, when she was 63- after having to live without legs for two years. My father died at 62. When I was diagnosed with diabetes, I lived in fear that I too would be dead before I could collect Social Security.

About 4 years ago, the diabetic medicines that I was on stopped being effective, and my A1C climbed to 10.0. This is a part of the disease- diabetes is a progressive disease. My doctor wanted to put me on Insulin, but knowing just how fragile diabetics become when they go on Insulin, I wanted other options. I see the story every day- insulin dependent diabetics inevitably go down the same road, ending in amputations, kidney failure, and death. Having to be on Insulin is a death sentence. I wasn’t going to do it.

That’s when the new class of diabetic medicines came along, and they were a miracle drug. Once I began taking Mounjaro, my A1C dropped to the mid 6’s, and my blood sugar is now well controlled. For the first time, I began thinking that I might actually make it to my 70’s. My last A1C was 6.2.

Since I could prove that I had been on Metformin and Actos for more than a decade, my insurance was willing to cover the $3,000 per month charge for the medicine. Insurance companies hate these new drugs- that’s why they got the Biden administration to go on a rampage to lower the cost of Insulin- they needed a cheaper alternative to the new medications.

Then two years ago, I got a new job. A new job means new insurance. The hospital that I work for, who is also my insurance company, requires you to get all of your medicine from the company’s pharmacy. That pharmacy has done everything that they can to force me to switch from the more expensive drug and take insulin. They delay filling my prescriptions, and say that they don’t have any, but if I would only switch to insulin, they have plenty of that available. I refused, and kept forcing them to pay for the drugs. As long as my doctor says that this drug is medically necessary, the insurance has to pay for it.

So this month, two months after the open enrollment period ended, my insurance company informed me that they will no longer pay for me to see any doctor who isn’t employed by the company that owns the hospital, and not coincidentally, the pharmacy. Not only that, but they are prohibiting me from paying out of pocket to see my current doctor. That was confirmed by my doctor this morning. They were threatened with legal action if they continued to see me for cash while I have active insurance. All of my future doctor’s appointments were cancelled. I offered to pay cash, and my doctor’s office told me that they can’t let me do that as long as I have active insurance. Now I am forced to see a company doctor, who will immediately place me on insulin.

I have a three month supply of medication left, and will be out of it by April 28. I can be added to my wife’s insurance during her open enrollment period, but that isn’t until July 1. It looks like they are going to force me to become Insulin dependent. I am sitting here thinking that my employer would rather kill me than pay for my medicine.

The only way to be added to my wife’s insurance earlier is to get a new job, and it has to be involuntary. I have to find a new job, then find a way to get fired, and I have to do it within the next three months. Maybe I can ask my boss to do me a favor and fire me.

My only other option is to try to convince a compounding pharmacy to sell me some generic, but you have to be obese for that to be legal, and I am not fat enough for that.

I am screwed.

Rules For Radicals

Let me start this post with a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon from 1988.

Have you ever played Monopoly? What if one of the people who is in the game is also the banker, and you know that he or she is giving themselves interest free loans from that bank? Would you do as Hobbes did and fight back, or would you simply refuse to stoop to their level and maintain your principles?

Participating in today’s society is a lot like that. The left has no principles or morals whatsoever, as long as they win. They define a win as imposing their will and desires upon others. That’s it- all that matters is that they impose their desires and will upon you. If you refuse to play- they win. If you stick to your principles and refuse to fight back- they win.

Every society in history that has fallen has done so because they refuse to stoop to the level of those who would destroy them. Sure, they call them names- things like barbarian, heathens, whatever the label, but those who refuse to play by any rules are the ones who win by the only rule that matters- winning. Vince Lombardi is credited with saying “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” and there is a lot of validity to that.

In Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals,” Alinsky lays out ten rules for defeating an enemy in the political arena. One of these is “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” That’s what the left does- this is why you see them quoting the bible and screaming that you aren’t being a good Christian whenever you say that you don’t want the government to care for an unlimited amount of illegals, or see your tax dollars spent on poor transgenders in Somalia. They are trying to shame you for abandoning your ideals, they are using your own morals as weapons against you.

That’s why the left hates Trump as much as they do, and why they are willing to get along with others on the right. Many on the right do one of two things- they cave in to the left’s desires, or they stick to their ideals. In other words, they accept defeat. Trump doesn’t do that, because his overwhelming personality trait is to win. That is all that matters to him, winning.

I recently posted about Stephen Smith making racist, self loathing remarks. The response was that we shouldn’t care what he says. I disagree. Using the left’s own tactics against them would be to hold them to their own rules- if anyone on the left makes a racist remark- you hammer them for it. Ridicule them, for that falls under another of Alinsky’s rules: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”

Let’s do to them what they are attempting to do to us. Hammer home the advantage, press the attack. No respite, no quarter. Winning the battle of ideas is easier and less costly than having to go out and kill one another in actual battle.

Keep up the fight.

This is Criminal

Here are some things that your tax dollars have been paying for:

1. National Squirrel Census $2.3M

2. Federal Committee on Sandwich Standards $5M

3. Bureau of Uneven Sidewalk Awareness $1.8M

4. National Soap Carving Championship Grant $700K

5. Bureau of Left Handed Scissors $250K

6. National Moth Appreciation Day Initiative $250K

7. The Federal Cheese Wheel Roll Off $1.2M

8. The Office of Inflatable Pool Regulations $500K

9. Duck Quack Research Fund $4M

10. National Database of Presidential Hairstyles $800K

11. National Pillow Fluffing Initiative $1.5M

12. Bureau of Elevator Music Standards $2.1M

13. Federal Bureau of Traffic Cone Counting $1.3M

14. Office of Seasonal Pumpkin Oversight $800K

15. National Chair Spinning Safety Council $400K

16. Federal Kazoo Orchestra Grant $2M

17.American Cloud Watching Fund $1.1M

18. The Department of Leftover Labeling $600K

19. The Bureau of Ice Cube Uniformity $2.5M

20. The National Velcro Noise Study $1.7M

21. The National Bubble Wrap Stress Relief Study $1.4M

22. Bureau of Mailbox Feng Shui $900K

23. Federal Balloon Animal Training Academy $2.3M

24. National Pretzel Untwisting Initiative $600K

25. Department of Sock Pairing $1.8M

26. Federal High Five Coordination Bureau $1.2M

27. National Ice Cream Cone constructural  Integrity Lab $700K

28. Office of Puddle Depth Measurement $3M

29. Bureau of Alarm Clock Testing $1.5M

30. Federal Litter Clean Up Task Force $2M

Of course, this isn’t REALLY where the money goes. This is a grift, so that people can steal money from the treasury.

Endless Corruption

USAID payments and funding were cut off by DOGE. I’m sure that it was just a coincidence that Politico didn’t make payroll for the first time ever.

Politico is owned by Germany-based Axel Springer SE, a global media holding company that was once publicly traded but is now privately held. The firm’s flagship publications and digital ventures are predominantly European, although its 2021 acquisition of Politico significantly expanded its US market footprint. This made the situation that despite being headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Politico’s strategic and financial decisions can be influenced by its foreign parent.

We were told that foreigners can’t interfere in US elections. Even so, Politico has received more than 200 payments totaling more than $8 million from USAID. It turns out that the US government has turned the entire MSM into a disinformation, wholly government funded propaganda machine.

Even establishment Republicans are involved in the grift. Our entire government, both parties included, are busy stealing us blind.

But Andrew Natsios, who ran USAID under President George W. Bush and is a lifelong conservative Republican, calls such moves “illegal” and “outrageous.” What Musk and Rubio are doing “is criminal. They can’t abolish the aid program without a vote of Congress.”

So Trump is reorganizing, and placing USAID under the State Department, with Marco Rubio being in charge of it.

Burn it all down. Quickly, before someone succeeds in assassinating Trump.

Another Brick In The Wall

A Mississippi court in the 5th Circuit has just ruled that a ban on machine guns is inconsistent with the text, history, and tradition of the 2nd Amendment, which makes the ban unconstitutional. Admittedly, this decision only applies to the defendant in the case, but it is the correct decision.

One court case at a time. There is a chance that, some time in my life, I will be able to go down to my LGS and walk out with a FA. That day will be a glorious one.

Racism of the Left

Leftist pundit Stephen Smith on Trump:

“The way that the Trump administration is handling it—’we want the most qualified, we want the smartest’—what you’re really saying is we want White dominance again. That’s what you’re really saying. You want White dominance!”

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to be a racist if you aren’t white. In this case, Smith is racist against his own race. This type of self loathing is the end result of decades of Democrat policies telling blacks that they can’t possibly make it unless they are given an affirmative action boost.

Also in the same clip, Chuckie Schumer has the audacity to call out President Trump:

“For [the President of the United States] to throw out idle speculation while bodies are still being recovered and families still being notified.”

Like you and your party have done after EVERY SINGLE MASS SHOOTING over the past three decades? Ass.

This is Why

I was asked why I hadn’t posted any stories on the DC plane crash. I replied that there weren’t yet enough facts, but I bowed to pressure from my readers and went ahead and posted a couple of stories.

It turns out that there are still more stories coming out about the pilot who was the apparent cause of the crash. Let me post a collage picture that shows you what I mean.

What do you know- a DEI hire because she hit the checkboxes for the Biden Administration- a lesbian LGTBQ activist.

This statement from her family reinforces that position:

Her sexuality wasn’t a factor in the crash, but her lack of experience was, and she was in the Whitehouse because of that sexuality. Once an Army officer is favored by the President, they tend to be promoted to and given opportunities that they are otherwise unqualified for. That certainly WAS a factor in the crash.

Sure enough, there are people who read this blog that are jumping to defend her because they don’t like to see me call out the military. One commenter said “It is enough time to know what you are doing, and he was an evaluator, which means his command thought he was experienced.”

So the commander of the helicopter squadron that has been responsible for transporting Democrat bigwigs all over the DC area would never bow to DEI pressure from the Whitehouse, I am sure. After all, we know that President Poopy Pants was in full command of his faculties, and there was absolutely no shenanigans from the lefties who were really running the show.

Solar Report

It’s been a bit since I updated the news on our Solar system. December went well. We generated 1121 kWh, and consumed 912 kWh, meaning that we sent an excess of 204 kWh back to the grid for credit. Our lowest power generated was December 6, with 12.6 kWh. Our best day was 54.1 kWh on December 2. That makes December the month where we generated the least amount of power of any month so far. Not surprising, since December has less daylight than any other month.

Temperatures for December were mild, so we spent most days with the windows open and the HVAC turned off, so we didn’t use a lot of power, which contributed to an excess. At the end of December, we had a total credit of 1121 kWh in case we ever use more than we generate, and it turns out that we needed it for January.

January was rough. There was a lot more cloudy days than there have been, and this month had the lowest average temperatures for any month in more than a decade. All of this contributed to our shortfall. There was a stretch of days from the 13th to the 23rd where 6 of those 10 days saw us generate less than 10kWh each day. We generated 1190 kWh for the month, still more than December, but we used 1238 kWh. Our highest use day was January 22 at 63 kWh. That was the day that the big snowstorm hit the state, and our temperatures dropped below freezing here, although it didn’t snow.

According to my weather station, the average temperature was only 54 degrees for the month. Since we maintain an average inside temperature of 70 degrees during the winter (68 at night, 72 during the day), the HVAC was warming the house against a 16 degree gradient.

Our bill didn’t change, thanks to our banked power that we have sold to the grid.

One small problem with our system has required a call to our installer, who put in a work ticket to Tesla. Our control system has been exercising the batteries by running them down to zero. It’s supposed to do that every 90 days, but it’s been doing it every 20 days. We are waiting for more word on why it is doing that.