#1825 Insurance Let Me Down - Part 2
Kelly opens up about raising two teens diagnosed with Type 1 at age six. She discusses international living , multiple miscarriages , alarm fatigue , and managing different sibling personalities.
Companies that Support Juicebox
Key Takeaways
- Self-advocacy is a critical necessity in the modern healthcare system because insurance companies operate as for-profit businesses that prioritize holding onto money over patient wellness[cite: 588, 594, 940, 942].
- Insurance terminology is often intentionally non-transparent; for example, modern technology like CGMs may be hidden under antiquated categories like "diabetic supplies" to make them harder for consumers to find or verify[cite: 501, 506, 621].
- Legislative "fixes" for diabetes coverage can be ineffective if they do not explicitly prohibit insurance companies from using high deductibles and coinsurance to maintain cost barriers for patients[cite: 577, 578, 580].
- Modern diabetes technology significantly improves glycemic stability and safety, yet "medically necessary" is often defined by insurers as the bare minimum required for survival rather than the tools required for optimal health[cite: 733, 737, 739].
- Utilizing AI and large language models can help patients decipher complex, jargon-heavy insurance plan documents to determine true out-of-pocket costs and benefits[cite: 682, 683, 684].
Resources Mentioned
- US Med Benefits Check: usmed.com/juicebox or (888) 721-1514 [cite: 486, 726, 1023]
- Omnipod 5 Starter Kit: omnipod.com/juicebox [cite: 488, 653, 1026]
- Eversense 365 CGM: eversensecgm.com/juicebox [cite: 494, 643, 1021]
- Juicebox Podcast Facebook Group: Juice Box Podcast, Type One Diabetes [cite: 482]
- Podcast Series Lists: juiceboxpodcast.com/lists [cite: 1038]
- Wrong Way Recording: wrongwayrecording.com [cite: 1043]
Introduction and Part Two Context
Scott BennerWelcome back, friends, to another episode of the Juice Box podcast. [cite: 473]
LauraHi. My name is Laura Keller. I am 52, so I'm dead solid into Gen X. And I spent twenty five years working in diabetes, and I live with type one diabetes. I've had type one diabetes for twenty seven years. [cite: 474, 475]
Scott BennerThis is part two of a two part episode. Go look at the title. If you don't recognize it, you haven't heard part one yet. It's probably the episode right before this in your podcast player. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juice Box podcast private Facebook group. [cite: 476, 477, 478, 479]
Juice Box podcast, type one diabetes. But everybody is welcome. Type one, type two, gestational, loved ones, it doesn't matter to me. If you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort, or community, check out Juice Box podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook. [cite: 480, 481, 482]
Bet nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. [cite: 483, 484]
US Med is sponsoring this episode of the Juice Box podcast, and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from US Med for years. You can as well. Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. Use the link or the number, get your free benefits check, and get started today with US Med. [cite: 485, 486, 487]
Today's episode is also sponsored by Omnipod. Check out the Omnipod five now with my link, omnipod.com/juicebox. You may be eligible for a free starter kit, a free Omnipod five starter kit at my link. Go check it out. Omnipod.com/juicebox. Terms and conditions apply. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. [cite: 488, 489, 490, 491]
The podcast is also sponsored today by the Eversense three sixty five. The Eversense three sixty five has exceptional accuracy over one year and is the most accurate CGM in the low range that you can get. Eversensecgm.com/juicebox. [cite: 492, 493, 494]
The Barrier of Language in Insurance
LauraThe only one they cover, and better covers is the Libre? [cite: 494]
Scott BennerNo. But they're covering the pump. The pump needs the CGM. [cite: 495]
LauraBut no. They they no. Mm-mm. They cover the Libre as a standalone. And here's what's really crazy. I also yelled at them for this. Is that, I like to use first person language because I was an advocacy director for a long time. I also don't think diabetes defines me. It's something I have. I have type one diabetes. I am not a diabetic. That's just my own personal thing. [cite: 496, 497, 498, 499]
Scott BennerOkay. [cite: 499]
LauraEverybody's different. Okay? So, anyway, when I searched on the PDL, like, for all the right things, I searched every word I could think of. The one word I didn't search for was diabetic. They said, well, it's under diabetic supplies. Well, first of all, under diabetic supplies, the only thing they list is the Libre. So they don't list lancets or needles or whatever. And I was like, that's not even good English, people. Like, how would I know to search for that? Because when I search for a continuous glucose monitor, which is the correct category for the Libre, that didn't even show up in your little PDF. And I was like, it's so bad how they treat people with type one diabetes. [cite: 500, 501, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, 507]
Scott BennerAre you here to tell us that people are incompetent and large corporations are trying to keep their money? [cite: 508]
LauraYes. Is that what it. And totally. And here's the thing. [cite: 509]
Scott BennerMake money. I have a four zero one k. [cite: 509, 510]
LauraI want corporations to make money, but the system with health insurance is broken. They're making billions. The parent company, they're making billions. I looked up their reports, you know, that they give to their stockholders and all the things. [cite: 510, 511, 512]
Scott BennerLike, shareholder reports and stuff like that. [cite: 513]
LauraRight? And I get it. I looked that stuff up. Fine. Make some money. But the reality is when you have something like a a chronic disease, and they're not even gonna cover for co pay anyway for a long time. [cite: 513, 514, 515]
Scott BennerMhmm. It's all about holding the money as long as possible. [cite: 516]
LauraYeah. It's terrible. [cite: 516]
Scott BennerThe money in their account is more valuable than than giving it back And to and they will give it back to you eventually if they owe it to you. But you are, like you said, you're gonna have to fight and claw and cry and scream and... [cite: 517, 518, 519]
LauraExactly. [cite: 519]
Scott BennerAnd doesn't it feel like you're being put on the phone purposefully with people who don't understand? [cite: 520]
LauraI don't know if it's that. I feel like they're doing the best they can. These are clearly people in different call centers or working remotely. And I've talked to some nice people who really have tried to advocate or at least showed some compassion. But these are frontline people. [cite: 521, 522, 523, 524]
Scott BennerAnd Yeah. I'm not saying they're not good people or they're not trying, but I'm saying, isn't it possible that the company itself is putting them in a position where they don't know what to do so that it frustrates you? [cite: 524, 525]
LauraYes. A 100%. No. And they're told, like, when this first happened and my first prior authorization got denied, I said, well, can I speak to a supervisor? Can I speak to someone else? And they were like, no. No. You can't speak to anybody else. This is it. You can only talk to us. And I was like, you assholes. Like, that is not true. There is somebody else. And then the next time I called back, I was even more forceful. And I guess what? I got to someone else. Right? I mean, I'm surprised they don't block my calls as many times as I've called. And I told my husband, I was like, they might decide to drop me after all this, and it can't be any worse than what I'm dealing with now because I'm not paying for my type one stuff. [cite: 526, 527, 528, 529, 530, 531, 532, 533]
Antiquated Technology and Intentional Delays
LauraAnd what I think is crazy too is that I'm very healthy. My diabetes is the only thing. I have one other medication that I take, and that's an estradiol patch, which is cheap because I am 52. And, well, there's this thing called menopause that every woman hits at some point. But other than that, like, I'm not a high utilizer. I'm not usually sick. I get my flu shot. I get my vaccines. I'm very healthy. I work out a lot. I have low cholesterol. I'm not even on a statin. Why do they have to be jerks? [cite: 534, 535, 536, 537, 538, 539]
Scott BennerBut you know, though, you have your answer. Right? [cite: 540]
LauraYeah. I know. I did this for so long, and that's why I cried because I was so frustrated. Yeah. But that's why I was like, I have to tell people, do not give up and warn people that this is how Ambetter treats unless you're lucky enough to get into one of their diabetes plans. But even then, it says they cover syringes, meters, things like that. I don't know how they cover type one diabetes in those plans. I think those plans might be a little more targeted for type two diabetes based on what I can find. But they don't even sell that one in the exchange, their diabetes plans. Sometimes I feel like they just really don't like people with type one diabetes. That's what it feels like. It's, ridiculous. [cite: 541, 542, 543, 544, 545, 546, 547, 548]
Scott BennerI would tell you that no one even understands what it means. I don't think they're like, oh, we won't help people with type one diabetes. I don't think they're helping anybody with anything. I would imagine if you called with completely different circumstances, completely different disease state, you'd be running into a very similar situation. [cite: 549, 550, 551]
LauraNo. I think you're right. I think advocating for yourself in the health insurance system is the same. It to your point, it's universal. You have to keep going, and you can't wait for them to send you something in the mail. And the fact that the way doctor's offices have to send them a fax is so nineteen ninety five. Like, come on. [cite: 552, 553, 554, 555]
Scott BennerI love that. Like The fax machine thing is hilarious. It's like we don't have a fax about it. I'm like, I like it when they ask you, can you fax it to us? And I go, no, because it's 2026. Right. No. I can't fax you because I don't own a fax machine. And by the way, no one else does either. Like [cite: 555, 556, 557, 558, 559]
LauraExactly. And it's intentional. Right? They haven't and they can pretend to hide behind HIPAA, which is BS. Because you know who actually uses apps like Clara all the time? Health care services. That's like my endocrinology office in Scottsdale. It's a HIPAA protected app called Clara, And I just text them, and they text me, and it's efficient. And you've got digital records now and all this stuff that are HIPAA protected, but they hide behind the fax machine because they can say, oh, we didn't get it yet. It's this. It's that. There's a delay. There's whatever. It's so much easier for them to hide. Slow down claims by using a fax system. And by the way, how HIPAA protected could a fax machine be now? You send my information to my doctor's office, it's sitting on a fax machine somewhere that anybody could see? [cite: 560, 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 566, 567]
Legislative Realities and Coinsurance
Scott BennerIt fell on the floor and slipped underneath Right. Desk and yeah. Yeah. Listen. You're a 100% right, but there's no answer to this. [cite: 568, 569]
LauraI know. Well, here's the answer. The answer is, especially on the state level, they need to pass legislation that prohibits health insurance companies from doing things like this. So the health insurance companies will testify against bills, they'll say, you know, a consumer has to do all the right things. The consumer needs to advocate. They need to look at their plans. They need to look at the PDLs, whatever. I did all that, and I still got screwed. Right? And I know what I'm doing. But here's an example. There in Arizona state, there's a bill right now in session that would go into the statutes where we protected people's rights with diabetes and health care saying health insurance has to cover these things. And they were going to try to codify that if you have type one diabetes, insurance plans have to cover CGMs. That sounds great on paper, but here's where the insurance companies still get away with not covering CGMs is that the last line of that bill, because I was so pissed, I looked this stuff up, said nothing prevents insurance from using deductibles and coinsurance prohibits them from using those. Right? So until you change that language, it doesn't matter. You can say you gotta cover type one diabetes, CGMs, and insulin pumps. But if they can still do deductibles and coinsurance, that's not insurance. Deductible is you have to meet it. And some people pick deductible plans that are, like, $10,000 that you gotta meet, right, before you even get there. And then you have coinsurance. And coinsurance is such BS because people get screwed. Right? Like, it's expensive for coinsurance, and a lot of people don't understand the difference between coinsurance and, like, a co pay. Right? And coinsurance makes it sound like you've got extra insurance, not, oh, you gotta pay more and you're only getting a percentage. Right? Even the language is confusing for a lot of people. [cite: 570, 571, 572, 573, 574, 575, 576, 577, 578, 579, 580, 581, 582, 583, 584, 585]
Scott BennerLook. I can't tell you for certain what's happening in the world, but I can step back and be as thoughtful about it as I think I can be. This is just clearly about people with money keeping the money as long as they can or as hopefully forever. It's just a business. Yeah. They're not a health care business. They're providing insurance. They're a casino. Right? Like, you You are giving them money, and they are hoping you don't need it back. And then they get to keep it. They invest it. They make more money off your money. They pay dividends to stockholders or, you know, wherever money ends up going after that. And then anybody who asks them for money is hurting their bottom line. So you saying, please pay for this, they're gonna put five or six low level, low paid employees between you and their money, hoping that you give up on the way. Yep. That's all it is. And listen, I talked to you for the first half an hour not about this on purpose because even in the last twenty minutes of talking about this, you sound crazy now. [cite: 586, 587, 588, 589, 590, 591, 592, 593, 594, 595, 596]
Personal Impact and AI Solutions
LauraRight? [cite: 596]
Scott BennerBecause they made you nuts. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think you are. I think that this is incredibly frustrating. [cite: 596, 597, 598]
LauraIf was I frustrating. [cite: 598]
Scott BennerStarted talking to you about what had happened to me, I'd sound just like you by the time I got done talking about it. But how many people get to the end and forget to make the call on time or the right form doesn't come through, and the third time it's kicked back to them, they just go, you know what? Just I'll just pay the goddamn thing. Like, who cares? And, like, I can't keep doing this. And then they smile and keep your money. [cite: 599, 600, 601]
LauraOr they don't get the care that need, and they switch from an insulin pump to two shots. Right? And they take their care backwards, you know, or they don't use that CGM. I do think it's kind of ironic that the year that changed everything in terms of health care in The United States was 1973, which is when Richard Nixon and congress he signed it into law. Congress passed a bill that allowed health insurance to become private and to be, like, private companies and and make more money than nonprofits Really codified that. Not to say that before that's there there weren't some health insurance companies that were a little more private, but not to the extent that they are today and what they're allowed to do today, is the same year that I was born. Yeah. Well I think that's really funny. And I was like, they picked... [cite: 602, 603, 604, 605, 606]
Scott BennerYou think they were coming after you right then? [cite: 606]
LauraI don't think they were coming after me. At least, Anne better picked the wrong girl to piss off with type one diabetes. [cite: 607]
Scott BennerIt's also easy to say, like, if they just change the language or the law or something like that. But, you know, as soon as some public official says like, let's say you beat your head against the wall with your local representation and you got somebody to, you know, say, alright. I'll propose a change to this law that'll help. And as soon as they do that, those insurance companies are gonna send all kinds of, you know, muscle to DC to pressure people out of doing that because they're always listen. This hasn't take this out of our conversation for a minute. No one's giving away their money if they don't have to. If I walked up to you right now and I said, Laura, give me a $100. You would say no. Yeah. You would say no. And I say no, but I really need it. You go, well, I need it too. You can't have it. And that's all we're talking about here is people are trying to hold on to what they have and get more of it. Everything's money and power, and, you know, and you have less of it when you're in this situation. You've been told that, you know, buying insurance is going to do these things, but there are so many rules and the language is so incredibly confusing that you don't know really what's gonna get covered until they turn it down. [cite: 608, 609, 610, 611, 612, 613, 614, 615, 616, 617, 618, 619, 620]
LauraYeah. Because their their systems and their websites are designed not to be transparent. Right? It's it's all intentional. It's a 100% intentional. [cite: 621, 622]
Scott BennerYeah. It is not difficult to make a user friendly website. If it's not user friendly, it's not user friendly on purpose. No. If the people you're talking to on the phone are not knowledgeable, they are not knowledgeable on purpose. If they are not empowered to make a decision for you that gets you to an end, that's on purpose. They are layering layering layering layering ways to keep you from your end goal. And I know this is true because I've been married for thirty years. There is a lady putting up roadblocks between me and my happiness constantly. Okay? And and if you think this is different, you're out of your mind. She's protecting herself. She's protect Yeah. I don't wanna tell you what she's protecting herself from, but she's protecting herself from something and so are the insurance companies. [cite: 623, 624, 625, 626, 627, 628, 629, 630, 631]
LauraYeah. [cite: 632]
Scott BennerAnd you are fighting a war with a pea shooter, you know, and because your weapon is but I need this or it's right or it's for my health. And they Don't care about that. That's not their end goal. They have a different end goal than you. You have an end goal of being healthy, and they have an end goal of keeping your money. [cite: 632, 633, 634, 635]
This episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by the Eversense three sixty five. Get three hundred and sixty five days of comfortable wear without having to change a sensor. When you think of a continuous glucose monitor, you think of a CGM that lasts ten or fourteen days. But the Eversense three sixty five, it lives up to its name, lasting three hundred and sixty five days. That's one year without having to change your CGM. With the Eversense three sixty five, you can count on comfort and consistency 365 a year because the Eversense silicone based adhesive is designed for your skin to be gentle and to allow you to take the transmitter on and off to enjoy your shower, a trip to the pool, or an activity where you don't want your CGM on your body. If you're looking for comfort, accuracy, and a one year wear, You are looking for Eversense three sixty five. Go to Eversense c g m dot com slash juice box to learn more. [cite: 636, 637, 638, 639, 640, 641, 642, 643]
This episode is brought to you by Omnipod. Would you ever buy a car without test driving at first? That's a big risk to take on a pretty large investment. You wouldn't do that. Right? So why would you do it when it comes to choosing an insulin pump? Most pumps come with a four year lock in period through the DME channel, and you don't even get to try it first. But not Omnipod five. Omnipod five is available exclusively through the pharmacy, which means it doesn't come with a typical four year DME lock in period. Plus, you can get started with a free thirty day trial to be sure it's the right choice for you or your family. My daughter has been wearing an Omnipod every day for seventeen years. Are you ready to give Omnipod five a try? Request your free starter kit today at my link, omnipod.com/juicebox. Terms and conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Both terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. Find my link in the show notes of this podcast player or at juiceboxpodcast.com. [cite: 644, 645, 646, 647, 648, 649, 650, 651, 652, 653, 654, 655]
Socioeconomics and the Healthcare Racket
LauraYeah. You know, it's like Mark Cuban, really smart guy. And I've heard him talk, and I know that, know, he's got his prescription drug platform, and he's trying to get people, you know, cheaper medications and things like that. But I've heard him talk. He's like and even Scott Galloway, prop g, he's really cool guy. Love to listen to him. They talk about how they don't have health insurance, that health insurance is kind of a racket. And that you know? But they're, like, billionaires. Right? So Yeah. They're millionaires. You know? Several times over, they can afford to pay cash for the health insurance, which I think is why, especially in the Scottsdale area, there's more and more of these concierge doctors where you pay a monthly fee to them instead of paying for health insurance. The problem is though... [cite: 656, 657, 658, 659, 660, 661, 662]
Scott BennerThat's for people with cash, with excess cash. [cite: 662, 663]
LauraYes. Yeah. Yeah. And if you need a surgery or, like, let's say you're playing pickleball and you snap your Achilles or something like that because you haven't been played sports in forever, which I think happens a lot in the Scottsdale area. A lot of people start playing pickleball in there as they age and they have these injuries and they're at PT. They don't have cash prices for all those things. But if they do, you have to have so much. So you still kind of need some level of health insurance if you're a semi average person. Yeah. And so the concept is great, and I would love to give up health insurance and just pay cash for everything, but I don't have the kind of resources that they have. Right? You know? And I go on, Mark Cuban's website periodically, and I try to see if they've got type one diabetes things like insulin pumps and CGMs, and they never do. And I'm that one person who every time is like, you need to start helping people with type one diabetes for their pumps and their CGMs. I do every time I go on there. [cite: 663, 664, 665, 666, 667, 668, 669, 670, 671]
Scott BennerOh, well yeah. Well, also, I hate to say it like this, but what is that? 2,000,000 Americans? Like, you know how many Americans there are? 2,000,000 is not a big percentage of that. No. No. Even if you're a company I don't know everything about Mark Cuban's company. But, like, even if he's out there trying to do the right thing, they have limited resources and limited manpower, and they're not gonna start with something that only benefits 2,000,000 people. [cite: 672, 673, 674, 675]
LauraExactly. [cite: 676]
Scott BennerRight. Exactly. And to your point about people with enough wealth to pay for their health care not keeping insurance, my son actually, the irony of this conversation turned 26 today. Today is his 26th birthday. So Yeah. We jettison him from our insurance now. Can't participate in our health insurance any longer. He's been looking at it through his job, and they present him with three PDFs that are, like, four years old. [cite: 676, 677, 678, 679]
LauraMhmm. [cite: 679]
Scott BennerYou read them. They're they use a lot of lingo. They're difficult to figure out what they mean. You know, this one's $400 a month, and this one's $350 a month, and this one's $72 a month. And as you're reading through, if you don't like, seriously, like, who in who in their right mind reads, like, industry lingo and understands it? So what we did was we took the PDFs and threw them into a large language model into an AI, and we asked it to break them down for us. [cite: 680, 681, 682]
LauraNice. [cite: 683]
Scott BennerAnd then we went in and talked to it about his health, and then asked for pros and cons, and then that stuff was at least it it made sense to us. And then we could go back and then look at the lingo and then make sense of the lingo through this plainer English that we were, you know, served back with. And Yeah. It's funny because I'm an adult and I've, you know, I have a bit of a savings. I I'm having income. Like, I'm a little ahead and everything. And when I looked at the three, I thought to myself, just buy the most expensive one because, you know, there's no way you're gonna buy the $72 one. So, like, one's $350, one's $420. Just pay the extra $70 a month because that'll probably be better. Until I looked at it and then looked at him and then took out the diabetes because my son doesn't have diabetes. Right. My son has Hashimoto's and nothing else. He he needs Tyrosine and a t three all year long. Other than that, he's incredibly healthy and athletic and doesn't get sick or hurt very often and doesn't have a family. Right? And Yeah. And when we got done, I was like, oh my god. Get the one that's $72 a month and just pay cash for the medication. Yeah. And you just saved almost $4,000 if you don't get hurt. And if you do get hurt, then you'll have to pay the $4,000, okay, before it kicks in, but you were gonna pay it anyway. So you're basically... [cite: 684, 685, 686, 687, 688, 689, 690, 691, 692, 693, 694, 695, 696]
LauraRight. [cite: 696]
Scott BennerHe's basically setting a bet that he won't have a catastrophic illness this year. And if he doesn't, he saves $4,000. Well, if he does that for four years, he saves $16,000. Yeah. And that's a lot of money. Right? Like and so now he's got this and then I just told him, was like, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I guess we have the insurance we have because of Arden's diabetes. Because generally speaking, we are not particularly unhealthy people. We don't we're not buying a lot of medication. My wife's your age. She's using one of those patches too. You know what I mean? Yep. By the way, god bless them. She's way less crazy than I remember my mom in her fifties. You know? So rock and roll. Yeah. My mom used to have something we called insane Sunday. Yep. I'd be happy to tell you about it sometime. And so we, you know, we're using a patch. Now she and I both use a GLP medication. And so okay. Having an insurance policy that covers that, that benefits us. Right? Because I would tell you that I think to cover the four of us, you know, keeping my son in the picture for a second, we're probably shelling out, like, $67,000 a year in health insurance premiums. Yeah. But Arden has type one diabetes. I use a GLP. She uses a GLP. So right on. Yeah. That makes sense. If we didn't have a GLP and, you know, five years from now, we're older then. So then the value kinda stays again. And you think, okay. Well, maybe we'll stick with that one. But my son, I was like, man, unless you get married or something happens, I think I'd throw my dice and try to ride this out for a while. And I never thought I'd say that till I really dug into it last week with him and talked to him about it. Yeah. If you got type one, I mean, you just need as much coverage and help as possible. But then you're in a situation where you're getting as much coverage as you can, and then you're like, hey. I would like my 60¢ back on the dollar, and they're like, oh, you can't have that. No. Yeah. Yeah. [cite: 697, 698, 699, 700, 701, 702, 703, 704, 705, 706, 707, 708, 709, 710, 711, 712, 713, 714, 715, 716, 717, 718, 719]
"Medically Necessary" and Modern Technology
LauraYeah. When they told me it wasn't medically necessary, I went ballistic. I was like, are you kidding me? I I was talking to the person on the phone to your point. Do they really understand type one? Because I was like, so I could die. Like, just to be clear, without an insulin pump, if I didn't have access to insulin and what I need, like but I could die. [cite: 720, 721, 722]
Scott BennerWell, they're gonna be happy to give you needles and insulin. Right? I have always disliked ordering diabetes supplies. I'm guessing you have as well. It hasn't been a problem for us for the last few years though because we began using US Med. You can too. Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514 to get your free benefits check. USmed has served over one million people living with diabetes since 1996. They carry everything you need from CGMs to insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies and more. I'm talking about all the good ones, all your favorites. Libre three, Dexcom g seven, and pumps like Omnipod five, Omnipod dash, Tandem, and most recently, the Islet pump from Beta Bionics. The stuff you're looking for, they have it at US Med. (888) 721-1514, or go to usmed.com/juicebox to get started now. Use my link to support the podcast. That's usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. [cite: 723, 724, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732]
LauraRight. But that's so archaic in terms of management. Like, my blood sugars are so stable. I to your point, I barely have lows. And I hike, and I do play pickleball, and I do go to Orangetheory and workout five days a week. Right? Like, that kind of stuff. Like, I used to have Lowe's way more often, but once I got on the Omnipod and the Dexcom, like, my blood sugar's gotten so much better. Like... [cite: 733, 734, 735, 736]
Scott BennerNo. You're not gonna get an argument from me. You're going to be way better off, but way better off is not medically necessary. Right. [cite: 737]
LauraWhich is such BS. [cite: 738]
Scott BennerOf course. Because they're not calling medically necessary as healthy as you can be. They're calling medically necessary you don't drop dead from having diabetes because here's some needles in your insulin. [cite: 739]
LauraYeah. [cite: 740]
Scott BennerRight. [cite: 740]
LauraYeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So And it's just so frustrating. [cite: 740]
Scott BennerAlso, it probably is part of the reason why, like, pump adoption is as slow as it is because, by the way, insulin pump adoption is much less than you think it is amongst the entirety of the type one community. [cite: 741]
LauraThat is insane to me. [cite: 742]
Scott BennerYeah. Far fewer people have insulin pumps than you think. [cite: 743]
LauraAnd I've tried them all, by the way. Like, well, not all. I've been on Medtronic. I've been on the t slim, and now the pod. And the pod is by far my favorite. Yeah. I didn't know how cool it would be to go tubeless. Mhmm. And so I do owe that to my friend Vicky. Shout out to Vicky. She's a big fan of the show. She'll get a kick out of that. But it's amazing what technology has done in comparison to where it was when I started, when I was diagnosed in 1999. [cite: 743, 744, 745, 746, 747, 748]
Scott BennerI met a maybe a dozen people this weekend using the eyelet pump, And I think they all would have described themselves as having a concern about not wanting to be that involved with diabetes. And they tried the pump for that reason, they seemed happy with it. Like, I think there's a pump out there for everybody. [cite: 749, 750]
LauraI agree. [cite: 751]
Scott BennerIf you and I wanna be, like, reasonable for a second, take out Omnipod, take out Tandem, take out Medtronic for a second. Just think of all the people probably running around with ten, eleven, 12 a one c's. And imagine if you just put an eyelet pump on them and they didn't need to do anything. They didn't need to get educated. They just said this is a small breakfast. Right? Or a average Mhmm. Or whatever those buttons tell them. Like, even if that system's not perfect, and I have to tell you, like, from my perspective, the way it sits right now, I wouldn't want my daughter to use it. Mhmm. But her a one c is also in the sixes. But for everyone else, imagine the alleviation on the health care system and on insurance if everyone could have better outcomes like this. You're not gonna get them to go with that because what they'll tell you is, well, yeah, but not enough people are gonna adopt it for us to actually to get our return back to begin with. Like, it's always gonna be about money. Like, always, always, always, always gonna be about money. [cite: 752, 753, 754, 755, 756, 757, 758, 759, 760]
The Future of Cures and Self-Advocacy
LauraThat's why I kind of crack up a little bit when people are like, there's gonna be a cure for type there will be a cure for type one diabetes someday, whether it's a mechanical cure, islet cells, whatever it is. But the reality is, if I can't get insurance in 2026 to pay for my insulin pods... [cite: 761, 762]
Scott BennerYou don't think they're gonna pay for your islet cell transplant ten years from now? [cite: 763]
LauraHell no. You know how long that's gonna take? [cite: 764]
Scott BennerFor just $800,000, you can cure me of my type one diabetes. [cite: 765]
LauraRight. Like, the only people are who are gonna get that cure are gonna be rich people who can afford to pay cash for it. Insurance is gonna not gonna pay for that. It's gonna need organizations like the ADA, Beyond Type One, Type One International. All the organizations are gonna have to come out and advocate hard, and that's gonna take years before any cure is gonna be paid for by insurance. It'll basically be a rich person's cure. [cite: 766, 767, 768]
Scott BennerYeah. I definitely don't think that's gonna work out in anybody's favor to any great number. No. Honestly, it's a limitation of so many different things. To fix them all would be two lifetimes. [cite: 769, 770, 771]
LauraYes. [cite: 772]
Scott BennerYou would either need a government plan that just said, hey. Look. We have a functional cure for type one diabetes, and everybody who wants it, it's just free. We'll pay the bill. Yeah. It's either that, which I mean, that's not gonna happen. [cite: 773, 774]
LauraBut no. [cite: 775]
Scott BennerRight? Or it's somehow through technology, the price falls so much that there's another company that comes along almost like a generic company that comes along and says, like, well, we can reproduce this and do it cheaper. So we'll do it for everybody to make that money. You know, it's like with anything else. I was talking to a CGM company the other day, I said, why don't you cut your price down and so everyone can have it? And then make the money that way. Instead of charging a dollar for it and selling it to one person, why don't you charge 25¢ for it and sell it to four people? And, you know what I mean? Like and you still make your dollar, and everybody else gets helped. I don't know. It's just that's not how it works. [cite: 776, 777, 778, 779, 780, 781]
LauraNo. It's not. Unfortunately, it's not. [cite: 782]
Scott BennerListen. I very purposefully apolitical on my podcast, but if you're waiting for government to come save you, that is not happening. If you're waiting for government to tell the private sector, hey, we don't want your money, so don't bother lobbying with us. We're just gonna go do what's good. That is not gonna happen either. If you think if you're waiting for insurance to stop lobbying because they just want you to be healthy, I'm gonna give you the same advice that I gave those 75 women when I was talking to them about advocating for themselves in a hospital setting. You are the only one that cares about you. And if you don't treat things that way, you are very likely not gonna get the outcomes you deserve. [cite: 783, 784, 785, 786, 787]
LauraIt's true. [cite: 788]
Scott BennerAnd I hate to say that, but you gotta come first and you gotta find a way to fight your way through it because no one's coming to help you. A woman looked at me sideways when I said that, and I said, we're in a rowboat. It's me and your kid and my kid. And the boat starts to sink. I'm gonna throw your kid right in the water. And I said, and I would expect if it was you and my kid and your kid and the same thing happened, you pick my kid up and toss him right in the river too. I said, would you? Would you throw yourself in and leave your kid behind? Would you throw your kid in to save mine? No. I'm not judging you. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that instinct. I was like, but you've gotta take that instinct and point it at your daily health with diabetes. It was a nice conversation, and Mhmm. Nobody was saying anything wrong. You deserve better care. The hospital should know better. You're right. All that should be that way. But since it isn't, what are you gonna do? You're gonna sit here and wait to die and point and go, oh, the world's letting me down. It's letting me down. Yeah. And I know that there's a barrier to that when we're talking about insurance and these kinds of things, and that barrier is cash. But up into the end of your ability to help yourself, you have to believe it's on you. If that's a realization you have and you can't afford it, I don't even know what to say about that. I'm not sure how you're supposed to keep your head up in that situation, perfectly honest. It's hard. [cite: 789, 790, 791, 792, 793, 794, 795, 796, 797, 798, 799, 800, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805]
Humanity's Ebb and Flow
LauraYeah. I think it's really hard. And I think having done advocacy for people with diabetes and passed legislation on the state level that people have told me that'll never pass or whatever, it can make a difference. The problem is laws can be changed anytime. They can be rolled back. They can be adjusted. So it's never a 100% permanent solution. And the average person can stand up, but it takes a lot. And you're pushing a boulder uphill, basically. Right? [cite: 806, 807, 808, 809]
Scott BennerAnd Yeah. That's a level of depression on this I wasn't even gonna go to. But you're saying if you somehow find a way to get the law passed and it helps somebody, as soon as you do that, just be sure those other people are gonna try to push it back the other way again. [cite: 810, 811]
LauraExactly. Because they will. [cite: 812]
Scott BennerAnd why? Because you just took their money from you took their money from them. They can't let that happen. They can't let that happen. [cite: 813, 814]
LauraMm-mm. No. There were so many times I testified, and other companies, insurance companies, and health insurance companies and things or whatever, they would say things that were blatant lies so that these bills wouldn't pass, and we'd have to counteract them as advocacy groups. And there's not one group who's doing all the work. It's a coalition of people. It's people sharing their stories. People don't share their stories enough, And it's hard because they're also afraid of retaliation. Right? They're afraid to share their stories and complain against health insurance or whatever because they're afraid they're gonna get retaliated against. [cite: 815, 816, 817]
Scott BennerYeah. Laura, this might be a good time for me to say I don't stay in hotel rooms on high floors. I'm not depressed. I don't feel suicidal. I just want everyone to know I'm a happy person who wants to be alive. I mean, listen. It I don't know what the answer is. I don't think there's an answer. The answer is Star Trek. You know what I mean? Like, until you can get society, you get to a place where everyone's working and it's all about trade and nobody's trying to be wealthy and everybody's just trying I mean, maybe that helps more people, but it just does not to me seem like that's the way humans are wired. [cite: 818, 819, 820, 821, 822]
LauraYeah. I believe in the greater good in people. I believe there's a lot of people and there's a lot of good in the world. And there's some people who are straight up evil a 100% or super greedy. I mean, I grew up Wall Street. Right? That was a pivotal movie in my life. You know? Greed is good. Right? There's a whole generation of that's very common. I I think what is hard is that, yes, make money. Yes, be profitable. People should be paid good wages. They should be able to have nice things and whatever. Right? If you work hard and the American dream, believe in that. But at some point, there's this line where that exceeds human decency. Right? Like, how much money do you need to make? Like, car insurance. They raised my car insurance this last year so much. It was insane. And so I called my insurance person, and I called and I was like, okay. Wait. Well, the Florida and this tragedy, don't live in those places. I live in Arizona. So you're telling me I have to cover their costs so you're raising my. And then they snuck in a bunch of, like, other charges for stuff that I didn't ask for, and I was like, why is this in my plan? Why is and I cut it out, and I cut it out. And she's like, well, we're not making any money. And I looked up before I talked to them. I was like, your company made $2,500,000,000 last year. And I get you're just a franchise, but you can't tell me you're not profitable. And she was like... [cite: 823, 824, 825, 826, 827, 828, 829, 830, 831, 832, 833, 834, 835, 836, 837, 838, 839, 840, 841]
Scott BennerMy State Farm office told me you should really consider turning that in because we might drop you. [cite: 842]
LauraRight. [cite: 843]
Scott BennerI don't think I've asked them for money in twenty years for something. We had a a small thing happen, and they were like, I wouldn't if I was you. And she said it right out to me. She didn't even hide it. She just said it to me. No. But listen. Here's the other side. May I give you the other side? For everybody who's listening right now, it's like, right on. The rich people, blah blah blah. There's they got too much. All of you out there listening, shut up. If I came to your house and I said, hey. I just wanted to give you $10,000,000 and a boat, and you'd be like, thank you, and you would take it immediately. Right. So A 100%. So don't be mad at the people who've figured out how to do it because if you could've figured out how to do it, I'm pretty sure you would have too. Yeah. Look. There's some of you hippies out there. I get it. You're like, I don't need that, man. Like, it's good. And I believe you. I believe you, hippies. And I will tell you too that I've had conversations with people. We're talking about the lottery recently. It was one of these, like, lotteries that was, like, I don't even know. Like, it felt like it was a billion dollars or something like that. Like, it was just a number that was so insane. And it sparked a conversation in our house about, like, oh my god. Like, if you woke up tomorrow and somebody's like, oh, you did it. You won a billion dollars. Like, what would you do? I have to tell you, like, I didn't have a lot of thoughts around it. I say things very similarly over and over again. I'd collect up my family and my very close friends, and I would bring them all to one location. And I'd say, hey. Listen. I've just won a whole lot of money. I wanna make sure your health is okay. I've brought doctors here to help you. Like, if you have any health issues you haven't been dealing with, like, let's talk to these people about this. And when we're done, I'd like to talk to you about clearing off your debt and giving you a little bit to get started with. But then after that, I would say, please never call me again. Yeah. I don't wanna be your mom for the rest of my life. [cite: 844, 845, 846, 847, 848, 849, 850, 851, 852, 853, 854, 855, 856, 857, 858, 859, 860, 861, 862, 863, 864, 865, 866, 867, 868]
LauraSo that's like a health care version of a George Clooney. I told my friends, if I ever win big, I'm gonna pull a George Clooney. And they're like, what? I go, if I tell you, you have to get on a plane to Scottsdale on these dates, your ass shows up because I'm gonna pay for the taxes. I'm gonna pay for the money. There's gonna be a security guard. They're gonna roll in some suitcases with some money in it. We're gonna throw a kick ass party. I know the hotel I would choose. Yeah. [cite: 869, 870, 871, 872, 873, 874]
Scott BennerAnd then go live your life and try not to piss my money away because I'm done. [cite: 875]
LauraThat's it. [cite: 876]
Scott BennerBut at the same time, like, I got done saying that, then somebody said, but what about for you? And I was like, I don't know. I think I'm okay. Like, I take your point. I also like, I also don't think you should limit people about how much money they can make. No. I take your point about, like, millionaires and billionaires, and at some point, like, they're just numbers and everybody else doesn't have any. Like, I could have that conversation forever and probably come down on your side of it. But, like, I'm not comfortable telling somebody they can't be innovative or they can't be greedy because I'm sure there's a lot of good things in the world that came from someone's greed as well. [cite: 876, 877, 878, 879, 880, 881]
LauraA 100%. A 100%. I believe in people being able to make money and make good money. Like, again, I have a four zero one k. My husband and I are invested in the stock market. I am considered well off. I am not poor. I am blessed that way. We worked hard. We've made good choices, all the things. Right? [cite: 882, 883, 884, 885, 886]
Scott BennerYeah. [cite: 887]
LauraI am not complaining about my status in life. I think we're what's frustrating is when you're paying into something called insurance, particularly health insurance... [cite: 887, 888]
Scott BennerIt should insure you. Right. Yeah. Call me crazy, but I was hoping my health insurance would pay for my health care needs. [cite: 888, 889, 890]
LauraBecause they're not losing money. Like, that's the thing. They're not losing money. If they were losing money, that'd be different because they were paying for everything. [cite: 890, 891]
Scott BennerIf I brought them on here and they were being honest, don't you think that they would tell you that if they did pay for everything for everybody, they would be losing money? [cite: 892]
LauraWell, of course, they would probably say that. Still, I don't necessarily know that that's true. Right? Because we know that if you pay for preventative stuff, people don't get the complications and the things, but that's not the way our health care system right now is designed. [cite: 893, 894]
Scott BennerI was gonna say, can I play health care devil's advocate for a second? Yeah. I talk to people all the time about their health. You know what one of the last things people are? Preventative. [cite: 895, 896, 897]
LauraI know. [cite: 898]
Scott BennerI think it's a thing we talk about, but I don't think it's a thing that even if we paid for that people would do, generally speaking, in mass. In a world where you it takes twenty years to talk somebody out of smoking or drinking soda, you really think they're gonna go to the doctor four times a year to check their vitamin b and d levels and make sure that their blah blah blahs are like, do you really think that's what's gonna happen? [cite: 898, 899]
LauraSome people. It depends. Right? Some people can and some people do, and not as many as one would hope. But some of it is have you ever been to the grocery store? And I'm like you said, I'm doing well. I'm doing okay. I'll go to the grocery store, and I'm looking at buying organic foods. And I can buy one bag of organic fruits and vegetables. And for the same price, someone could buy 12 frozen pizzas, you know, processed junk food, all of the things. So kinda depends, I think, on your socioeconomic level, what you can afford to be preventative and what you can't. You know, I think it's also crazy that as a healthy person with type one diabetes, I have to go to the doctor, what, three, four times a year to make sure I have prescriptions and stuff and things like that. Well, that's just a waste of the health care system right there. Right? Like, if I'm healthy and I don't have anything wrong, why do I have to go in and see you? Why can't you just upload my data and look at it and go, yep. Things look good. Great. Moving on. Right? Did you know that when you turn 65 and you have type one diabetes and you go on Medicare, you have to prove that you do have type one diabetes? [cite: 900, 901, 902, 903, 904, 905, 906, 907, 908, 909, 910, 911]
LauraWhat? I'm gonna live my whole life. Knock on wood. I'm gonna get turned 65. I'm gonna be healthy, and Medicare will still be there. And in order for my type one insulin CGMs, pumps, whatever it is at that point, get covered, I have to reprove. They have to give me the test again to prove that I have type one diabetes. Yeah. That is a stupid waste of money. Why? [cite: 912, 913, 914, 915, 916]
Scott BennerYou're talking about what makes sense versus how things work. [cite: 917]
LauraYes. Well, that's true. [cite: 918]
Scott BennerAnd if this just happened, if that just happened, if we only did this and if we only made sense here, like, yeah, I'm with you. But, like, that's not going to happen. Yeah. At every level of this conversation, the base of this conversation as is everything else that you talk about is people. Yeah. People have limitations. They have a limitation on how much energy they have, how much desire they have, that they also have lives and girlfriends and boyfriends and kids and bills. And they don't have twenty four hours a day, seven days a week to thinking about something. And even if they did, they're not computers. They can't come up with the right answer all the time. There are plenty of people who come up with an answer and spent their adult professional lifetime doing the wrong thing, trying to do the right thing. And so while all that's happening, this mess, you're not just cleaning up your bedroom. This is a billion intertwined things that are intertwined with billions of people. And they all have an opinion about what to do about it, and they all have pain points that are different than others. They all have different intellects and financial concerns. [cite: 918, 919, 920, 921, 922, 923, 924, 925, 926, 927]
Scott BennerYeah. You can't fix this stuff. [cite: 928]
LauraNo. [cite: 929]
Scott BennerThis is how it works. Yeah. We will find a better way just as we have over generations and millennia and all that stuff. Mhmm. But it is not gonna be because someone woke up tomorrow and said, oh, I know how to fix this. Yeah. It's just gonna bleed towards the answer. And then eventually, in ways that our minds can't grasp, so many different things are gonna change and morph over time that we'll just end up in a better place. Or Yeah. We'll end up in a worse place for fifty years, and then it'll ebb and it'll flow. Yeah. The truth is my lifetime might be the lifetime where it goes the wrong way So that eventually, when my kids are 50, it starts to go the right way. Like, we're measuring success based on our lifespans, but you need to be measuring success or change based on humanity. Sadly enough, the speed that humanity runs at is not the speed that my life is running at. [cite: 929, 930, 931, 932, 933, 934, 935, 936]
LauraNo. It's true. I really I really like that there's a lot of people in humanity who were fighting the good fights trying for the right things. And I'd like to believe I'm on the right side of that line of fighting for other people and caring about people's rights and access to health care and healthy foods and the environment, all that. But you're right. It's a slow moving thing. And in the meantime, I think to sum it up, you have to advocate for yourself. That's kinda where we started. Right? You talked about how you were talking to those women. You have to advocate for yourself. You have to advocate for yourself in your job, in your health insurance, in the hospital, whatever it is for other people because that really will make change over time. Yep. And you can have positive impacts on your life and other people's life even when it's hard. Don't give up because, like I said in my story, I am a trained professional, and I still got screwed. And I'm still advocating for myself. I'll follow-up with you if I ever even get my insulin cost covered because you just don't know. I might be paying out of pocket for the next year until I can get out of this silly plan. But... [cite: 937, 938, 939, 940, 941, 942, 943, 944, 945, 946, 947]
Closing Perspectives and Taylor Swift
Scott BennerSo much of it is perspective. Whether you're sitting there listening now and you're thinking, like, I'm broke, and there's no reason for somebody to have $5,000,000,000 in the bank. And look at all the people that could help. I guarantee if you take that person and sit them down, they have a different perspective than you. Yeah. And their perspective is gonna be trying to take care of them and theirs and what they see as the world order. So are you and so is everyone else in between, and you are not gonna get somebody to just agree that they should give you their money. Whether that's you being asked to pay 60¢ on the dollar for something or that's some maniacal, like, cartoonish character out in the world that has all the money in the world. And you say to them, like, I mean, they all figure it out in the end. Right? Because you see they get old and they give it all away. They they figure it out at the end. They go like, oh god. What am I doing? And then it's but but in the middle, you can't get people to do that. [cite: 947, 948, 949, 950, 951, 952, 953, 954, 955, 956]
LauraYeah. [cite: 957]
Scott BennerTo give away your money, imagine how hard it would be to make all that money. And then imagine in your thirties, someone said you give it to somebody, but you feel immortal still. You're like, I can't give it away. I have to stay alive. Like, what if this happens? What if that happens? You don't think a person with a billion dollars has a, like, what if I lose all this feeling? Of course, they do. Probably more so than somebody who makes $60,000 a year does. [cite: 957, 958, 959, 960, 961]
LauraYeah. [cite: 962]
Scott BennerAgain, everyone's perspective is different. Their pressure points and pain points are different. [cite: 962]
LauraYep. [cite: 963]
Scott BennerAnd by the way, even if there was a right answer, I don't trust you to come up with it. I'm talking to people listening, and you don't trust me to come up with it or somebody else. Right? So Right. When you hear people say, like, the only answer is to, like, hope the AI doesn't kill us and then ask it for an answer, that considers all of us. Like, our brains are not big enough to hold the entirety of what needs to be considered to make a decision that big. Having said that, I go very back to what you just said. I wanna say a million percent I agree with you. If everyone's out there doing their best and fighting, I think the fight moves us in the right direction. And I do think it's important to stick up and argue and push for what seems right because overall, like, I'm sure whatever it is you out there think is right is probably right. And so, you know, like, just think about civil rights or something that's a little easier to comprehend. If people don't stand up, if people aren't willing to stick their neck out, these things do not move forward. So No. You know, whatever the thing is you're worried about, like, I hope you can find a way to get out there and fight for it. [cite: 963, 964, 965, 966, 967, 968, 969, 970, 971, 972, 973]
LauraI agree. [cite: 974]
Scott BennerI'm doing that in my own life in ways that some of you might know and some ways that are more private and you're never gonna know about. So you know? No. Laura, we fixed the whole world here. It's fantastic. [cite: 974, 975]
LauraI wish because then I'd go buy a boat or a... [cite: 976]
Scott BennerYou don't need a boat. It would be free. [cite: 976, 977]
LauraYeah. Well, there you go. I don't know that we need to go a 100% free. I have a business major. So I was a business major. I believe in nice things and working hard. I just hope that everybody is able to be happy. Sometimes attitude is everything. [cite: 978, 979, 980]
Scott BennerCan I paint a picture for you? We're all millionaires. Mhmm. You couldn't even get your yacht out of the harbor. There'd be too many yachts there. It would cause a different problem. [cite: 981, 982, 983]
LauraIt would cause a different problem. [cite: 983]
Scott BennerThere's gonna be a different problem. You're gonna get murdered by one of your crazy kids who wants all your money. [cite: 984, 985]
LauraYeah. It's like that Taylor Swift song. Yeah. [cite: 985, 986]
Scott BennerWhat is it? [cite: 986]
LauraThere's a Taylor Swift song where she talks about how her daughter-in-law thinks she left money for her in the will, but she didn't. It's that thing. Yeah. [cite: 987, 988]
Scott BennerWow. I don't know anything about Taylor Swift. I just realized. [cite: 988, 989]
LauraOh, I'm a big Swifty. I'm a big Swifty. [cite: 989]
Scott BennerSo I'm happy for you. You think that she'll marry that football boy? [cite: 990]
LauraI do think she's gonna marry mister Kelsey. Yeah. Mhmm. I like it. I think they're a good match. [cite: 991, 992]
Scott BennerWill she be Taylor Kelsey when it's over? [cite: 992]
LauraI think there's a difference between what she might do privately and what she'll do publicly because she's obviously a billionaire, and her name, obviously is copyrighted and all of the things. So you never know. Especially if they decide to have kids, it's easier for your kids if your kids have the same last name than different last names, and that's even true if your parents aren't rich. I think sometimes that can be tricky. The only thing I have to say about her marrying Travis Kelce is that I'm a 49ers fan, and they beat us one too many times in big games and things like the Super Bowl. So when they lose the Super Bowl, it doesn't make me sad. But I am happy that a lot of young girls have started watching football now because of the Taylor Swift phenomenon. Because I started watching football when I was a kid with my dad Yeah. In Oregon, and that we would bet quarters on quarters and things like that so that I would get into the games. [cite: 993, 994, 995, 996, 997, 998, 999]
Scott BennerYour dad used sports betting to get you excited? [cite: 1000]
LauraHe did. Yeah. He did. We played with quarters. It was part of my allowance money. It was very fun. I learned how to swear while my dad was watching football. He was a LA Rams fan when, like, Eric Dickerson and stuff was there. [cite: 1000, 1001, 1002, 1003]
Scott BennerYeah. Well, that'll make you a curse. [cite: 1004]
LauraRight? It it can be a very good bonding for girls and their dads to watch sports together, so I commend them for that. That's that's pretty cool. [cite: 1004, 1005]
Scott BennerThat Taylor Swift, her dad noticed years ago that they were spending so much money on tour buses, And then he thought about all the acts are out on tour, they took some of Taylor's money and bought up tour buses. And now they're basically the largest owner of tour buses in the world, so they make money off of that too. [cite: 1005, 1006]
LauraThat's brilliant. [cite: 1007]
Scott BennerThere's an interesting way how money makes money because if you had a thought like that, you'd be like, oh my god. If only I had enough money to buy tour buses, but I don't. [cite: 1007, 1008]
LauraTour bus. Right? [cite: 1009]
Scott BennerAnyway, I'm just gonna say this here, and then I'm gonna stop the recording because I don't even wanna hear your reply. I don't think she has a very good voice. [cite: 1009, 1010]
LauraDisagree. Disagree. A 100% disagree. I'm in the Amazon top point 05% of listeners to Taylor Swift in my year review from 2025. She's got so many albums. She could listen for hours. [cite: 1010, 1011, 1012]
Scott BennerIt's possible you're in a cult, Laura. It's possible. [cite: 1013]
LauraBut we can agree to disagree. We can agree to disagree. It's totally fine. Everybody can, like I... [cite: 1013, 1014]
Scott Bennerdon't care if you listen to Taylor Swift or not. That's for certain. [cite: 1014]
LauraExactly. Not hurting anybody. [cite: 1015]
Scott BennerShe has a few boppy songs I like. I I'm not, against it. I'm just telling you why. I think there's a reason she started in country. There, I'll just piss everybody off, and then we'll stop right here. Thanks so much, Lara. You were terrific. [cite: 1016, 1017, 1018, 1019]
LauraIt was a pleasure. Thank you. [cite: 1019]
Scott BennerOf course. Hold on one second for me. The podcast episode that you just enjoyed was sponsored by Eversense CGM. They make the Eversense three sixty five. That thing lasts a whole year. One insertion. Every year? Come on. You probably feel like I'm messing with you, but I'm not. Eversensecgm.com/juicebox. [cite: 1020, 1021, 1022, 1023]
This episode of the Juice Box podcast was sponsored by US Med. Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. Get started today with US Med. Link's in the show notes. Links at juiceboxpodcast.com. [cite: 1023, 1024, 1025]
A huge thanks to my longest sponsor, Omnipod. Check out the Omnipod five now with my link, omnipod.com/juicebox. You may be eligible for a free starter kit, a free Omnipod five starter kit at my link. Go check it out. Omnipod.com/juicebox. Terms and conditions apply. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the juice box podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple Podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend. And if you leave a five star review, oh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card? The Juice Box podcast has been in production since January 2015, and in that time, we have amassed just a fantastic catalog of information for you. [cite: 1025, 1026, 1027, 1028, 1029, 1030, 1031, 1032, 1033, 1034, 1035]
The defining diabetes series. Also, bold beginnings, diabetes pro tips, small sips, fat and protein, algorithm pumping, mental wellness, ask Scott and Jenny, diabetes variables defining thyroid, after dark, the math behind, Omnipod five, pregnancy, how we eat, grand rounds, cold win, GLP meds, the quick start guide if you wanna get going with the podcast but you don't know where to go, Diabetes myths, there's even a type two diabetes pro tip series. All of this is at juiceboxpodcast.com. Go to the menu, click on series, and they can all be found right there. If you go to juiceboxpodcast.com/lists, you'll get all these great downloadable lists of all the the different series so you can save them on your phone, keep them for later. Every episode is listed along with its episode number. So you can go into Apple Podcasts or your you know, wherever you listen to your audio, And say you wanna hear episode fourteen sixty nine, steal a one c overnight from the small sip series. You just go to the search bar, type juice box, one word, and then the episode number, fourteen sixty nine. It should be the first return you get. Have a podcast? Want it to sound fantastic? Wrongwayrecording.com. [cite: 1036, 1037, 1038, 1039, 1040, 1041, 1042, 1043]
