This summer, Nichole Nichols reached out to her state lawmakers for help navigating the system for her T1D daughter and other families having issues with Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) . Instead of guidance, she got a pretty rude response. Rep. Jeffrey Guice emailing “I’m sorry for your problem. Have you thought about buying supplies with the money you earn?” Nicki responded by publishing the email on social media and the diabetes community, then the national media, picked up the story. Rep. Guice apologized and Nicki received support directly from Medicaid and her state (but not from Guice). However, she says what happened next at the legislature was even worse.
In this episode, Stacey also talks about the new UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes three years ago.