Diabetics Skimp On Lifesaving Care In Recession

At a family clinic in impoverished Newark, N.J., so many patients simply stopped showing up after losing health insurance that doctors posted notices asking clients with financial troubles to speak up so staff can try to help.

"Sometimes you don't see (diabetes) patients for several months," said Dr. Cynthia Paige, medical director of the New Jersey Family Practice Center. They "don't understand what a nightmare uncontrolled diabetes is and how it's ravaging your body," she said.

April Bumpus, 31, of Woodstock, Ga., was laid off from her job in medical sales last spring while recovering from surgery, and her health insurance was canceled. By September, she had to switch from two advanced insulins that tightly controlled her blood sugar to cheaper, older ones that cause surges and drops. The advanced insulin would have cost $360 a month, the older insulin only $100.

"It makes you really feel like you have the flu" at least once a week, said Bumpus, who's more worried about the long-term consequences. "That does scare me. I can have a heart attack, I can have a stroke, I can go blind."

Emergency rooms increasingly are treating diabetics who haven't been taking medicines, according to doctors at several hospitals nationwide and the professional group for ER doctors. Many of the patients have blood sugar so high they are hospitalized for days. Free clinics also are getting a surge of diabetes patients desperate for help.