Just a note to let you all know that my group was automatically dismissed from Jury Duty 
today, so I am officially off the hook. I can hardly believe it. Let’s hear a communal sigh of relief everyone, please. Why, thank you! And thank you for all your great insights and suggestions as well.
And now I have a moment to flag the fact that today is a special kind of diabetes awareness day, aiming to create a “wake-up call” for those at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. American Diabetes Alert Day is being observed around the country with free risk screenings, free fitness advice from the Gold’s Gym chain, and even major municipal fire departments sounding the alert.
The folks at LifeScan had a unique take, issuing a press release with cost-saving tips for people with inadequate or no health insurance. Their list of resources is worth reprinting:
- There are many free or low-cost programs, including individual pharmacy plans, that offer assistance with getting prescriptions or supplies for those who qualify. Good resources for researching these programs include: www.TogetherRxAccess.com; www.Access2wellness.com; www.pparx.org; www.rxassist.org; and www.needymeds.org.
- Look into free or low-cost health clinics:
- Federally funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), there are thousands of health centers around the U.S. that provide low-cost healthcare to people based on financial need (www.findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov).
- Hill-Burton facilities: There are around 200 Hill-Burton healthcare facilities around the country that offer free or reduced-cost healthcare to those who can’t afford to pay (www.hrsa.gov/hillburton).
- Privately funded, non-profit, community-based clinics: These typically provide care for common illnesses and injuries to those in need, at little or no cost (www.freemedicalcamps.com).
- Visit www.freehealthscreenings.org for information to help you keep up with regular, routine health screenings. In the long run, preventative care will always be your best healthcare investment.
I do hope those links prove helpful to some of you — thereby offering relief to a few patients other than myself today.
Hey Amy,
A few more resources for patient assistance on this post (though most of them were the same ones that LifeScan listed):
http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/84404/42866/assistance-2-0
I not only had to serve but ended up being the presiding juror. Yikes. I did blog on how I dealt with it.
The jury system is based on ignorance.
First you have a Judge. He has 4 years of college and 2 to 4 years of law school. He has practiced law for many years. Plus years on the bench.
Then you have two lawyers opposing one another. Usually these people have a law degree and years of experience the same as the Judge. All of these people are experts at convincing people.
Then you have 12 people on a jury. They have usually no experience in law. So the trial goes to which ever lawyer is most successful in convincing 12 nonlegal people who is telling the truth.
DNA testing on rape cases has freed a lot of people that were unjustly convicted by this law by convincing people rightly or wrongly a person is guilty as charged.
This is really a form of trial by combat. Obviously someone with money can afford to pay to get free regardless of guilt in the form of a exceptional lawyer. That is why I think the legal system is wrong.