I had an idea to get legal aid to help me get an insulin pump from Diabetic Care and Education. Anyone have serious opinions on this matter?
You can ask them, but it’s highly unlikely that any legal aid group will take the case. Legal aid groups focus on providing services to people who need a lawyer because they’re in trouble and have no other way out - they’re being evicted, for instance, or sued because of a traffic accident and have no insurance, or are being harassed or abused by someone and need a restraining order, or sometimes are not getting medical care they’re entitled to.
Furthermore, they generally only take cases in which the client needs protection from someone who is trying to do something to them OR keeping them from something they’re entitled to by law. It would be highly unusual for a legal aid group to take a case to try to force a private group or individual to do something it doen’t usually do for everyone else. Does Diabetic Care and Education give out pumps on a regular basis? Is it issuing pumps to everyone else but excluding you because of your race, gender, religion or sexual orientation? If not, no legal aid group is likely to take the case.
Finally, a pump is not a medical necessity unless it’s physically impossible for you to take injections, and it’s the only way you can get insulin. If you will die without a pump, legal aid might consider taking up your case, but not against a private group like DCE, which has no legal obligation to give you a pump in the first place.
But you know, I haven’t practiced law in 10 years. That’s my serious opinion, but it wouldn’t hurt to got a legal aid group and ask. The worst they can say is ‘no.’
Remember that legal aid groups, like everyone else, are strapped for cash these days. They are very picky about the types of cases they choose and gravitate towards the cases where they can be most effective or help the widest group of people possible. Going to battle against a diabetes advocacy group to force them to give an expensive insulin pump to one person who can live without one doesn’t fit that criteria.
thanks for the advice, Terry, it’s folks like you that make this site a lifesaver! Guess it would be wise to just let my pancreas “die”, as they so eloquently put it.