I currently have a wonderful insurance through my work but will be taking a temp. leave of absence anywhere from 5 - 12 months to hike the Pacific Crest Trail and travel a bit after. With the leave, my insurance will go as well. I will be working until late December or January so will need to secure decent and affordable insurance by then. I was looking into Medicaid as well and was not able to find any sufficient answers for diabetic supplies, and having little experience with Obamacare was wondering if anyone with personal experience can feed my brain. I had one of the insurances under the plan a few years ago but that was before I was diagnosed and it wasn’t the greatest. Basically, I am looking for ideas for the best option for me to get my supplies without any income for that period of time. Yes, I have an amazing and experienced partner that will be with me, will not be alone, will have a beacon locator on me at all times, and we are spending every day from now until February preparing. We are departing beginning of March. Thanks everybody. I am open to all ideas, throw everything you have up in the air for me.
EDIT : Storing insulin safely through extreme weather, desert and snow: GO
We will be stopping at checkpoints and pharmacies will be available off the trail. I am researching storing methods, any advice or wild ideas are greatly appreciated. I am exploring as many options as possible during this time. I don’t want to carry too much insulin on me for fear it will go bad but will easily be able to pick up periodically. I get 5 Lantus/Novolog pens at a time, curious if I can split this up and pick up along the way? Tiny solar power refrigeration system? How cold can you keep your insulin? Mail pens ahead to volunteer homes along the way, people that are willing to store for me along my journey? So many balls up.
Jealous. I’m so, so jealous! The PCT!!! Holy cow, what a great time.
I have no answers for you because I’m new to all of this. But I hope you go for it with gusto no matter what. Backpacking is my raison d’ etre and I still haven’t figured out how to do so without being consistently hypo, no matter how much or what I eat while hiking. So yeah, I’m jealous.
Hi Camille, sounds like a fun trip !
I just wrapped up 2 1/2 weeks of remote hiking. I used 2 frios for insulin: a small one for the “active” pens and a larger for the spares. I had no problems with the Frio’s in hot weather. They should work for the 30 day life of the pens. Restocking every 30 days will be a logistical challenge.
Biggest issue I had was screwing up my basal with the meals and “energy carbs” during long days. To be honest, I don’t have a good solution for basal adjustment during the hike other than trial and error. I think my basal problem came from my dinners, which caused me to go high late at night.
Only other suggestion from me is do some practice hikes, multi day. This helps you adjust your I:C ratio for the activity and helps you figure out how to recharge with carbs between meals while hiking. Carry weight on the practice hikes, the exertion is much higher than with just a day pack.
Obamacare is just private insurance. It’s not a whole new thing, it just allows us to buy it on state or federal (depending on your state) exchanges. Go to www.healthcare.gov and get the info for your state and local area. You buy it where you live, not where you are going. Be sure to only include plans in your search that cover you out of network because you will be out of network (unless your residence is where PCT is at all times). Many private insurance plans only allow mail order drugs so you can’t go to a local pharmacy.
If you currently have a job that pays over three times the poverty level, you won’t qualify for Medicaid. Many states did not expand Medicaid. I don’t know how it works when you are not employed (by choice, not layoff). They will also determine your subsidies for health insurance if you buy through the exchanges by this year’s income. Because you have a job with benefits you might not be able to research next year’s plans when they become available to research (I think in October). You will have to call - the number will be on the healthcare.gov website for your state.
Your best option might be COBRA. Very expensive but in your circumstance might be best.
Every plan is different. You will have to do the research. It’s not easy.
Don’t have any suggestions for insurance other than maybe using your endo or CDE as a resource? As for hiking gear, check the watertight scuba line of cases by Pelican…some combination of frio and the scuba gear might work.
Sounds like a grand plan. Having hiked extensively on the PCT including 30+ day trips, but never taking on the whole thing, I am jealous. Once you get into Oregon and Washington you will probably be able to hike 25-30 miles per day, and planning should be simplified. Getting through California is a bit of a challenge. If I was doing the planning, I would have someone I could trust and communicate with periodically, keep your extra insulin pens and then fedex or UPS overnight them to the post office you are about to get to. In many of these small mountain towns, the post office is also the gas station, and the grocery, so getting to a pharmacy would involve getting way off the trail. Waiting an extra day every 30 isn’t the worst thing depending on your physical condition.
Another item to consider, both my wife’s and my appetite changed in strange ways on the trip, so plan on some flexibility in what you are eating. For example after 20 days of hiking both of us could only eat about half the food we planned on eating, and the rest got dumped at a store for others to pick up. Then after 30 days, we were ravenous. Made no sense. Have you test driven the food you are planning on eating? Lots of freeze dried stuff has amazing amounts of carbs.
