thomas_b wrote in message
<1142369852.569415.259050@e56g2000cwe.googlegroups.com>...

   It is very difficult to get private (non-group)  health insurance in the
U.S. as a diagnosed-diabetic.

I am guessing that your Kaiser plan is subsidized by your employer.    I
would expect a non-subsidized plan to cost somewhat more than $6000/year for
a single person.    (I don't really know;  I'm just extrapolating from my
own coverage.)

Regards
 Old Al

Here in Texas there is legislation on the books requiring group health
insurance policies to provide coverage for diabetes management
supplies and education.

Not all states are so forward-thinking.  [ed: Yes, I know, Texas isn't
renowned for its forward-thinking politicians, I didn't vote for him.]

Does Colorado statute require such coverage?  If not it is entirely
possible for any insurance carrier issuing policies in Colorado to
exclude diabetes supplies and care from coverage.  Read the state
statutes addressing insurance.  Read your policy thoroughly.  Ask your
employer's benefits coordinator for clarification of anything you find
vaguely worded.  Keep asking questions until you're satisfied with the
answers, even if the answers you get aren't the ones you want.

It may be that your particular insulin delivery method has not been
used by anyone previously on the plan and as such is not on the plan
formulary.  Each plan's pharmacy benefits are negotiate between the
insurance carrier (Kaiser) and the purchaser (your employer) and
generally include several hundreds of commonly prescribed medications.
Insulin is commonly prescribed but I'd bet your particular delivery
system is not commonly used.  You may need to talk to your benefits
coordinator about your situation so that your insulin delivery system
can be added to the formulary.

When I was prescribed Lantus in the cartridge delivery system the
insulin itself was a covered item but the pen needles required for
injection were not.  It took me several weeks, several hours and many
harassing phone calls to both my insurance carrier and my husband's
benefits coordinator to have the pen needles added to the formulary.
The pen was a freebie, as far as I know, handed to me by the eduator
at my endo's office.

Good luck!

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, an insurance industry flack, or any
other "official" source of information.  I merely read and struggle to
understand all that legal bullshit I mentioned above so I don't get
screwed.

+++++++++++++

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