On January 30, our Breakthrough T1D Bay Area volunteer advocates met with Congresswoman Ana Eshoo to ask for her support in renewing the Special Diabetes Program.
The meeting started on time and with flowers!
Denise Danielson had the great idea for the kids to bring flowers for the Congresswoman and they were beautiful. The kids were great and ‘made her day!’
Eshoo jumped right in with how she sponsored a bill that support continued coverage for those on Medicare, and we impressed that most of our devices were covered through our private insurance, most all of the kids had CGMs and were willing to show her their devices.
We sat down to talk about the Special Diabetes Program (SDP) specifically. Pam Sagan helped lead the conversation with Leslie as back up on the facts. Pam asked that the Congresswoman take a lead role in prevailing her colleagues to step up and support SDP to pass “un-cut.” The Congresswoman said she would take a deeper dive into the issue with her Health Aide Erin Katzelmick-Wise (in DC) to see what subcommittee this is being approved by.
We ended the meeting with Gabrielle Brits describing how much it means to her, her family and community of T1D. She made the observation that when she was in school, she didn’t know anyone with diabetes, and now in her son’s school alone – there are (5) children. The Congresswoman thought about it for a minute and reflected that she too, knew no-one and in looking at these kids in the eye, she said, I’m here to work for you.
Attendees were: Pam Sagan, Danielle Danielson and daughter Page, Gabrielle Brits and son Austin, Andy Ivarsson and son Oskar, Leonard Ely and Leslie Edelman.
