My name is Frank Smith.  I have diabetes.  I wasn’t diagnosed with diabetes until later in my life.  When I actually was able to get back into employment, had private insurance, one of the first concerns was it appeared that I did have diabetes, and sure enough, I did.  It had progressed to the point where almost immediately I was using insulin as well as oral medications.  I was able to maintain with that but also had deep concern about what would happen if I didn’t have a job again and had to go back to another way of living and not having that insurance coverage.

As it played out, I did end up leaving my employment for a period of time; and boy, the reality hit right then:  I no longer have insurance.  This wasn’t working.  And as a result I wasn’t able to see my doctor.  I wasn’t able to purchase medications.  And so my physical state really deteriorated.  It also made me really aware that it was incredibly important for me to get employment again, whether or not I wanted to at that time, just pure and simply because of health care reasons. 

It was a huge fear that this would happen, and sure enough it did.  And that fear stays with me constantly about what’s going to happen if for some reason my job is defunded or I need to take a break for whatever reason.  It’s going to leave me hanging out there trying to figure out, am I going to be able to do this?  If I pick up on a health care policy through my employer, am I going to be able to afford that after I would leave employment?

It’s a number of issues that just scare the dickens out of me.  I just don’t know what I would do without it.  A lot of people talk about issues around copayments and so forth.  The fact of the matter is, is right now, I don’t care what copayments are.  The fact that I have something to cover the basic costs that I incur is huge, and it helps me to maintain my life.