With major health insurance changes on the horizon, what do diabetes care and education specialists need to know? Amy Killelea, Assistant Research Professor at Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms, joins Diabetes Care Conversations to discuss how upcoming policy changes could affect diabetes coverage, costs and access to care. They also share practical strategies and resources to help people with diabetes navigate their insurance options and maintain access to essential medications and supplies.
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Paola Acevedo
For people with diabetes, changes to health insurance policy can have very real consequences, from what they pay for insulin and supplies to whether they can maintain access to the care they need. With several major health policy changes taking effect in 2027, diabetes care and education specialists may find themselves fielding more questions about coverage, cost, and how to choose the right plan.
Welcome to ADCS's podcast, Diabetes Care Conversations. I'm your host, Paola Acevedo, and today we're breaking down with diabetes care and education specialist need to know about the changing health insurance landscape and how they can help people with diabetes navigate it.
Joining me is Amy Killelea, Assistant Research Professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy. We'll discuss what's changing in 2027, what to watch for when comparing coverage options, and resources that can help people with diabetes maintain access to affordable care, insulin and diabetes supplies. Amy, welcome to Diabetes Care Conversation.
Amy Killelea
Thank you so much. I'm so glad to be here.
Paola Acevedo
And we are so excited to have you. Before we dive in, can you introduce yourself, share a bit about your background, and tell us what drew you to studying health insurance access and affordability for people living with diabetes?
Amy Killelea
I'm a researcher. I look at the ins and outs of insurance coverage, the way it's designed, what it covers, the affordability of insurance or the unaffordability of insurance is often the case. And I come about that research area in both sort of professional road and a personal road. So professionally, I've spent many years working with patient groups and really trying to answer the question of how do you ensure that someone living with an often high cost chronic complex condition can access the care and treatment that they need to stay healthy. And so answering that question in every way possible has really driven my professional life and working across many different patient groups and conditions. Personally, though, my mom, who might be out there right now, has been living with type 1 diabetes for over 50 years. And she has taught me everything that I know about
the importance of access to diabetes care and treatment and really just our front row seat in what happens when coverage is difficult and the time and the energy it takes to make sure that you're getting what you need and that your insurance plan is covering what you need to stay healthy. Those are the two roads that sort of lead me to this topic.
Paola Acevedo
Wow. Thank you for the work that you do. And obviously thank you for being on the podcast. But it's so nice to hear that you have that personal sort of experience and perspective from mom and how that has led you to help others in this space. And we know we know the help is needed. Now we're here to discuss something that's been on a lot of our minds, which is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, also known as the 2025 Reconciliation Law, as well as other federal policies and some regulatory changes that are going to be affecting health insurance.
From your perspective, what are the most important changes taking effect in 2027 that diabetes care and education specialists and other healthcare professionals should understand? And why specifically do they matter for people living with diabetes?
Amy Killelea
That's a big and really important question. As you noted in your question, we are in the midst of a lot of policy change and flux. And we've seen a lot of changes over the past year and a half, and changes are still coming. So you mentioned the reconciliation law, and I'll talk about the major provisions that affect coverage for people with diabetes. But frankly, for millions and millions of Americans who don't have diabetes as well, these changes are massive. And we've also seen changes that affect specifically the Affordable Care Act or ACA marketplaces. With the reconciliation law, there are sort of two main components that are affecting coverage and ultimately care for folks. One are the massive cuts to Medicaid. So that law included $800 billion of cuts to the Medicaid program over 10 years. And those kinds of cuts are just astronomical for that program. And so what you see there as a result of those cuts, and what we will see already starting and picking up in 2027 and beyond are massive coverage losses in Medicaid. One of the major drivers of that coverage loss that will take effect in January of 2027 are new work requirements for Medicaid. So conditioning Medicaid eligibility on work.
Now I'm gonna focus the rest of our time today, and my research focuses on the commercial private insurance space, but we really can't talk about policy and health coverage in 2026 and 2027 without talking about Medicaid and what's happening in the Medicaid space. And that will impact the private insurance space and the marketplace space because folks are churning in and out of these covered sources. That's sort of the number one piece and probably, you know, has made the headlines everywhere that Medicaid cuts are going into effect. They're going to lead to massive coverage loss. But in addition to that, we saw in the reconciliation law and then in a series of administrative actions through regulations, namely, we have seen changes to marketplace coverage. So the Affordable Care Act marketplaces where folks who don't have employer sponsored coverage, who aren't eligible for Medicaid or Medicare can get affordable coverage with subsidies to help them afford that coverage. We've seen changes to that market.
Amy Killelea
The biggest one is actually something that was left out of the reconciliation law. And that was the decision that Congress made last year to let what had been enhanced premium tax credits, so more generous help that people had been getting to afford their premiums for marketplace coverage, that more generous help, those more generous premium tax credits, expired at the end of 2025, which means that people saw a spike in their premiums. Virtually everybody who had marketplace coverage saw a spike in their premiums for 2027. And that has led to massive coverage loss. Millions of people have dropped their coverage as a result of the expiration of those enhanced premium tax credits for the 2026 plan year. And looking ahead, so my colleagues at Georgetown, they have done assessments and looking at what plans are filing in terms of their 2027 rates.
Right. So the premiums that they're going to charge in 2027. And the TLDR there is that premiums are continuing to go up. The market is in flux. So we got a ton of increases in 2026. Folks can expect to have increasing premiums in 2027 as well on the marketplace. Now the other changes that have sort of accompanied the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits have been things like opening up access to non-ACA regulated plans. So plans that don't have to meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. There have also been administrative changes that would make it harder to prove that you're eligible for premium tax credits and enroll in coverage, changes to immigrant eligibility for premium tax credits. All of these have kind of a net effect of making it harder for people to enroll in marketplace coverage, stay in marketplace coverage, afford marketplace place coverage. And again, this affects everybody, but for people with diabetes, the stakes are very, very high. So the option to say, well, this is too expensive. I just won't have health insurance coverage, that has much higher stakes for someone with diabetes who needs that care and treatment to stay alive.
Paola Acevedo
Absolutely. Thank you for that, Amy. Like I said before, this conversation is so timely. And you I know you mentioned that your expertise and what the conversation is going to focus on is more the commercial private. But I I in particular, I practice at a fairly qualified health center in Washington, DC. And so most of our patients are Medicaid members. And so we are having these discussions and trying to figure out how to prepare for these upcoming changes. And quite honestly, we're having a hard time navigating or even understanding what the impact is going to look like you know, come January first with those new work requirements and just the massive cuts that you mentioned. I want to ask if you and your colleagues have discussed what those implications could look like on the ground for healthcare providers.
Amy Killelea
Yeah, we talk a lot about the impact of the coverage loss and the coverage changes on people and and people living with diabetes and other folks, but there are also significant impacts for healthcare providers. It's both. It's the Medicaid coverage loss and the marketplace flux. Both will affect providers. I think one of the main things that we're already seeing and will likely increase is the administrative pressure on providers.
When we increase friction in the health coverage and health insurance space, and friction can be increased by adding a requirement for eligibility, such as a work requirement for Medicaid. Friction can look like adding documentation to prove that you are income eligible for federal subsidies for marketplace coverage. Friction can look a bunch of different ways. And that's one animating feature of these policy changes. We are introducing more friction into these programs and friction we know affects people. It makes it harder to enroll and it leads to people dropping coverage, not because they're not eligible, but because the documentation burdens were too great to overcome. And friction also affects healthcare providers because the healthcare providers are the ones who are at the front lines of trying to help their patients navigate those friction points. So the healthcare provider is the one saying, I do not want you to lose your Medicaid. You are sitting in front of me now and I know you need Medicaid to afford your diabetes medications and devices and supplies. So I'm gonna sit here and I'm gonna think with you and help you figure out how we're gonna meet the work requirements, how we're gonna get you an exemption from the work requirements, how we're gonna assemble all of the documentation you need to stay on marketplace coverage, how we're gonna do a comparison of all your different plant choices now that plants are so much more expensive and figure out which one works for you.
That is an administrative task that we haven't put an hour count on, but we should because 100% healthcare providers are gonna feel that.
Paola Acevedo
And then that's added on top of the barriers and the friction that we already experience with prior authorizations. All these additional barriers that we already deal with that are not going away. It's gonna just be compounded on top of the administrative burden that we're already basically drowning in. Yes, yes. And the other thing you mentioned that was very interesting to me is the increase in the premiums and how folks are paying more for premiums but getting less coverage. So instead of let's say I used to pay for a silver.
Amy Killelea
Yes.
Paola Acevedo
tier, now I'm paying for a bronze tier. I'm paying more, but getting less coverage. And so I think that that's also something to consider there and how that's going to impact folks as well. For people with insulin requiring diabetes, what coverage or affordability challenges are you most concerned about as these changes are implemented?
Amy Killelea
So in looking at the marketplace in particular, because I think that's where we're seeing the majority of the affordability, the new affordability challenges as a result of some of the policies we just talked about. So one of the biggest affordability challenges that we've seen thus far is the increase in premiums. We saw that in 2026, right when the enhanced premium tax credits expired. And as I said, we're gonna see that in 2027. And the increase in premiums has a multifold effect on anyone with a chronic or complex condition that's using a lot of healthcare and people with insulin requiring diabetes, check all of those boxes. You not only have this increased premium that is going to be a major impact on your household budget, but you also then have this trade-off of, okay, if I can't afford this increase in premium, how plan designs work, right, is that your premium is connected to your cost sharing. So the higher a plan's premium is, the lower the deductible and the lower the out of pocket max and coinsurance. And the lower the plan's premium, the higher the out of pocket maximum and higher the deductible is. So those things are linked. And so if you have a situation where you're someone with a chronic complex condition, you want a low deductible plan. You want a plan that has co payments and not coinsurance, you want a plan with a slightly lower out-of-pocket maximum. Those are things that you want because you know you're going to use more healthcare throughout the year. And the problem is when premiums start to go up, it becomes very difficult to find a plan with a lower deductible and reasonable cost sharing that doesn't bring the bank with your premium. So that is the major issue that I see is that because premiums are going up, people are now looking at less generous options. They are now forced to look at instead of a plan that maybe had in years past a $1,000 or $2,000 deductible, now for the same exact premium amount, their deductible is going up to $4,000, $5,000 to $6,000. And that cost is additive if you're someone living with diabetes, you know you're going to meet your deductible and you know you're going to hit that
Amy Killelea
and have a lot of healthcare utilization while you're in your deductible, that's all going to add up and that's gonna be a big cost burden. So I think that's a really, really big one. It's not just the premium, it's also the trouble finding a plan that's gonna have reasonable cost sharing for someone who knows they're gonna use a lot of healthcare.
Paola Acevedo
Similar to what we discuss with healthcare providers and how it's compounding. Similarly, people are already strapped. I mean, they're feeling pressure from so many different avenues. And this is just an added layer of pressure. And so with that being said, I wanted to ask if there are any particular planned features, benefits, or costs that healthcare professionals should encourage patients to pay a little bit closer attention to during open enrollment?
Amy Killelea
It's a good question. And I generally look for, for instance, if I'm talking with my mom about her coverage choices because she is someone living with type one diabetes, if I'm talking to anyone really who has a chronic complex condition and they know they're gonna use healthcare services, I sort of have a rule of four, like four plan attributes that I'm looking at. And I'm looking at them all together, right? So we already talked about the premium. That's usually the easiest to know. And it's usually the first thing you know about the plan but it's not the only thing you should know about the plan. It only tells you kind of one information piece. So in addition to the premium, I'm also looking at the cost sharing design. So we talked about that a little bit. I'm looking at how big is the deductible? And I'm looking at what are the cost sharing for brand name drugs if I'm on a brand name drug, for devices, for specialist visits. And I want to look for a plan typically that is going to have a lower deductible and that is going to have a dollar co-payment amount instead of co insurance. But that's an attribute. I want to know what the cost sharing is for the plan. So you've got premium, you've got cost sharing. And then I want to know are the devices and medications that I use on a daily basis or that the person that I'm talking to uses on a daily basis, are those covered by the plan, right? So if I'm on a CGM and a particular AID and those things are working really well for me, I'm gonna look to make sure are those covered by my plan. I might do a secondary look and see do they have a prior auth attached to them or not, right? But at the very least, I'm gonna look, are they covered by my plan? And then the fourth thing I'm gonna look at is the provider network. We know that plans are different in terms of the providers they contract with. But if I have or my kid has a good relationship with an endocrinologist or a diabetes specialist, and I want to make sure that this person can continue to see that doctor that they trust that knows them, that knows the family. I'm also going to look at the plants provider network and I'm going to see is the doctor that I want to see or continue to see in that plant network. And the trick of it, right? And the hard part of it is it is very difficult to find a plan that checks the five-star mark on each one of those attributes. And for people with diabetes, and particularly now where we've got.
Amy Killelea
Higher premiums, we've got higher deductibles. It is a lot harder to find a sort of plan that covers all of those bases. Now I think there's a lot of trade-offs in the decision making where you look at, okay, can I absorb a slightly higher premium so that my deductible can be lower? If I do a higher deductible, can I enroll in the plan that has the provider that I know and trust in it? And it is a series of hard conversation that is so individualized and that is a conversation for a family, for the person enrolling, and then for healthcare providers who are also trying to help folks look at all of these options and figure out what's gonna work best for the individual in front of them.
Paola Acevedo
That's a very complex sort of design in general or something to think about. But I appreciate your answer of narrowing it down to the four most important things. I think that's gonna help a lot of our audience members help other folks who are navigating this space. So I think most people are used to just focusing on that premium because that's the dollar, you know, the dollar amount attached to what they have to come out of pocket. But it's so important to look at the devices and the medications that are covered in all of these other features that you mentioned the provider. Am I still gonna be able to see my endocrinologist? Am I still gonna able to even work with my PCP that I've worked with for, you know, the past 10 years? So thank you for that, that more concise rule of four approach. You recently released resources to help providers and enrollment assistors prepare for marketplace open enrollment. What are the top three things that providers should do when helping patients with diabetes compare plans and make enrollment decisions for 2027 coverage?
Amy Killelea
It's hard to narrow it to three. And I wanna note too, is as you said before, that we are asking providers to add to all of the things they're already doing. So, you know, these are the three things that I think are important in any coverage year in any environment, but particularly important now. I think number one is to take a long hard look at all the options. In years past, when there's not a lot of change year to year, especially in the marketplace, there has been a default to say, well, the plan I'm in is working for me. I'm just gonna reenroll in that and I'm not gonna look around. I'm just gonna take the path of least resistance. We've all done that. Path of least resistance and just re-enroll. I would say this is not the year to do that. This is the year to look at all the different options. Number one, a lot of carriers in the marketplace or at least a handful of carriers in the marketplace are leaving. They're not gonna have the same options available in 2027 as were available in 2026. So that's an important factor to look at. But you also, because the premiums have gone up, because plan designs are changing, it makes sense to pause, sort of take that time and make sure that you're working with folks to look at what are the range of different options and what are the trade-offs. And then looking at that kind of rule of four attributes as you look to see what's available. I would also say too, open enrollment starts in most states November one.
What I tell most people, right, but particularly folks for whom the stakes are pretty high, and I would say people with diabetes, the stakes are high for this coverage decision. You don't need to enroll on November 1st. Take a minute. You've got time. Providers have time. The open enrollment period lasts. You have up until December 15th to enroll in coverage that starts January one. There is no need to rush this. There's no benefit. There is no sort of extra gold star to get it all done November one. So don't do that.
Spend some time. Do not be the first person in line on this. You shouldn't do that. Spend some time with it. Look at all your options. The second thing I would say is to particularly now, right? We know that folks are going to end up in plans with higher deductibles and higher cost sharing than maybe they were in the past. And we're talking about marketplace plans, but this applies to any private insurance. We know that the landscape in employer-sponsored insurance is also not great, that deductibles are going up, that cost sharing is going up year on year.
Amy Killelea
What I would say now more than ever is to really make sure that you as a provider know the resources out there to help folks with their cost sharing. So this is to make sure that someone is not underinsured. If they end up in coverage, right? They get their coverage, but they know and you know that person is going to have trouble with the copays for insulin, for instance, with the copies and cost sharing for devices that they need. There are lots of resources out there and a plug for ADCS and Dana Tech's resource to help folks find all of the different resources to help pay for devices that folks need and all the different assistants out there. And so we'll put that in the show notes so people can take a look at that. And the third thing that I would say that folks should pay attention to is that we also know that there are going to be some folks who drop their coverage, who even with all of the look around, take your time.
Here are resources to help with co-pays. There will be a group of folks who lose coverage. They might be folks who in the past have been able to rely on Medicaid, but can't because of Medicaid changes. They might be folks that sort of fall in this gap where they're over income for Medicaid, but they just cannot afford their marketplace coverage. They could be all sorts of different folks, but we know there's gonna be folks for whom there's a gap in their insurance coverage.
And I think it's really important for that group in particular, for providers and anyone working with that group to make sure that a gap in insurance coverage does not translate into a gap in care and treatment. And there are resources out there to help fill those gaps to make sure people have medication access and device access when they're experiencing that gap in coverage. It is fragmented, it is a patchwork, but there are resources and programs out there. And I think that's the third thing that providers should be aware of for folks who for whatever reason find themselves in an insurance coverage gap.
Paola Acevedo
Thank you for that. And I know we'll cover a couple of resources in just a moment. But the thought of taking your time and looking at these plan designs is so important. I myself have taken the path of least resistance as as you mentioned. And I'm like, yes, I'm going to sign up for all the same things or the same covers that I have this year. But thank you for that warning or that sort of suggestion that I should look a little deeper. We should all look a little deeper. And I did want to ask, are folks able to compare plans before that 111?
Amy Killelea
So every state is a little bit different. Some states use healthcare.gov. Generally a little bit before November 1st, healthcare.gov will open for what's called window shopping, window browsing. So you can look at the plans, but you can't buy them yet. if you're in a state that operates its own marketplace, you might have the same thing. It just might vary a little bit. So generally you can look a little bit before, but by November 1st, you can not only look, but also enroll a coverage.
Paola Acevedo
Thank you for that. That's a wonderful note to make that we can look a little bit in advance. Now speaking of resources, one of the resources that you developed recently focuses on helping people avoid insufficient coverage options and the gaps in care that we were talking about a little bit earlier. What warning signs should healthcare professionals look to identify insufficient coverage? And I'm gonna make this a two-part.
What resources are available when we identify that someone is either at risk of losing that coverage is or is already experiencing some sort of interruption or a gap in their care or in their diabetes medications, their supplies, especially when it comes to insulin.
Amy Killelea
Yeah, the insufficient coverage is, I think, an important one and one that is unfortunately becoming more common out there. So one of the policy changes that we've seen, and I think we'll probably continue to see, is more of an embrace at the federal level for sort of a a free market approach to insurance products. And so that means that we've got kind of an opening up of availability to products that may not meet that do not meet the Affordable Care Act coverage requirements.
So these products, sometimes they're short-term plans. So those are products that don't have to meet the ACA requirements. They're typically sold for a period less than a year. And they can look a lot like a marketplace coverage or a major marketplace plan, but they're not. They don't cover all the same things. They don't have the same non-discrimination protections. And someone with diabetes who ends up in that type of product can really find themselves wildly underinsured because the coverage is just not the same.
And the benefits requirements are not the same as ACA marketplace coverage. So, you know, some hallmarks of those plans, and this is where my biggest piece of advice is to read the fine print. And maybe it's two pieces of advice. Read the fine print, and if it looks too good to be true, it is too good to be true. So read the fine print. You are looking for fine print on a product that might say something like: this is a short-term plan that is not subject to the Affordable Care Act's regulations, or this is a fixed indemnity plan product that is not major medical health insurance coverage and should not be used as such. There is typically fine print on these products. There has to be. It's just sometimes difficult to find. And then the second piece, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. If you think that you have found a, you know, $50 a month premium plan with no strings attached and, you know, open network to everything that is off the marketplace entirely, you haven't. That is not a unicorn. That doesn't exist. You have found likely an insufficient plan. So if you are thinking that it sounds too good to be true, then you know, trigger point one, look at the fine print and make sure you know what you're buying. And the best way to ensure that you're enrolling in an ACA regulated marketplace plan is to enroll through the marketplace. So go to healthcare.gov, go to your state-based marketplace and enroll through those pathways instead of other pathways that might be steering folks astray. So the second question in terms of what do we do if
Amy Killelea
Somebody has a gap in insurance or is in insufficient coverage. I mean, number one, if you're in insufficient coverage, get out of that coverage and see if you can get into a special enrollment period for marketplace coverage. That's why the open enrollment period right now in front of us, starting November one in most states, is so important. If you've got a gap in coverage, I think that's where the patchwork kind of opens up and the resources available will really depend on where you are. So one of the resources that we at Georgetown, along with our partners at Families USA, put out is basically a summary of resources out there of what's available for folks who have a gap in insurance coverage. And that includes things like looking at, you know, you mentioned Paula, you work at a community health center. Federally qualified community health centers are the core feature of our safety net in this country. They can't do everything, but they can provide an access point for someone who's experiencing a gap in insurance coverage.
Things like that charitable pharmacies can also help provide a sort of gap fill for folks who don't have insurance coverage. And then there's just a host of different charitable and manufacturer assistance programs that are out there. And that goes back to the Dana Tech resource that helps folks find those programs. So I don't want to oversell it because there are phenomenal resources out there that are really important, but it's also fragmented and there isn't a good stand in for major medical coverage, but there are resources that can help fill in the gap, at least for a time.
Paola Acevedo
Absolutely. And I'm glad you mentioned community health centers. We we definitely do fulfill that role in the community when folks are in in other words struggling to pay for their health care. And you mentioned something about charitable pharmacies, and I'll put a a little call out for what is called a 340B pharmacy, which is very common in community health centers where we can offer certain medications at a discounted price for our patients. And it has been quite helpful for the folks in our community. Now I did want to circle back to a point you made about the fine print. I know you said it's difficult to find, but can you give our audience members maybe an idea of where they can tell patients to look at that fine print?
Amy Killelea
So one thing that I would always recommend and and this is kind of a lawyerly thing, but I think it's just good sort of consumer protection practice is to ask for the document. Don't ever sign up for something without being able to read the document, right? So if you're on the phone with somebody and they're trying to sell you something and you you don't quite understand what they're trying to sell you, ask them to share the plan information with you. And you could say it as simply as that.
And one of two things will happen. One, they might say, I'm not resharing that and I can't, in which case a blinking red light should go off and you should say, This doesn't sound legit. If it was legit, they would share the document with me. And the second thing is they will share the document with you and you will have either a plan brochure, a plan information document. You will have something in writing in front of you that describes the product attributes of what somebody's trying to sell you. And that's where you'll look, right? And you will look to see.
How is the product described? Is it described as a marketplace plan? Is it described as a plan offered by a major medical carrier that you and I would recognize the name? Or does it have words like short-term plan, not subject to the Affordable Care Act, or fixed indemnity plan, not major medical coverage? Those are the kind of words that I'm looking for. You really want to know: is this plan or product subject to the Affordable Care Act or is it not? And usually, somewhere buried in the documents, you will find that fine print somewhere. You just have to look for it and you have to have the document in order to find it.
Paola Acevedo
for that because I know those fine prints and those confusing words tend to intimidate many of us or many of our patients. So it's good to know where we can guide people to look at and the specific terminology that they should look out for. Now as we look ahead to full implementation of these policy changes in 2027, what role can we, diabetes count education specialists, play in helping patients successfully navigate these changes? And where can they find trusted resources to stay informed as the implementation evolves.
Amy Killelea
It's an important question and there's so much to be done. I think one of the major roles though is to be the sort of front line who is keeping track of the changes in what's happening. So one thing that we actually didn't touch on yet, but I think is important is that many of the changes to marketplace coverage in particular are subject to litigation. So folks have sued the federal government saying you shouldn't have put in place these changes. They're they're going to hurt people, you know, you overstepped authority.
All of the legal theories behind the suits have been stated. And as a result, many, not all, but many of the provisions that were slated to go into effect in 2027 or even in 2026 are on pause because now they're working their way through the court system. So that is good in terms of things are on pause and we haven't yet seen the full effect of some of these changes. And I think it makes it hard because we don't exactly know when
or if those provisions will go into effect. So it kind of overlays a sense of chaos into the system where we don't exactly know what and when is happening. And and I do think that providers have a really important role to play in being that sort of eyes and ears on the ground of what's happening and when, and passing that information along to the patients that they serve in a timely way. So I think that's one of the most important things. And I think in terms of resources, the resources that we've talked about that
Georgetown and Families USA released. Not only do we have that summary of resources, right, which I think is really important because it's just a menu of what's out there to help people, we also have a marketplace coverage summary. So basically, in writing, a summary of all of the different marketplace policy changes that I talked about today and how assistors and providers and folks working with anyone living with diabetes.
what changes they should be aware of and how they should talk about those changes to people living with diabetes. And then a second resource that looks at how do you tell if a product is insufficient? How do you tell sort of the exactly the the warning signs of insufficient coverage or a non-ACA regulated product and red flag. A red flag. Yeah, a document of a red flag. So that's another resource that we have out there. And then, you know, we've talked a few times now about the ADCS and Dana Tech tools.
Which I think are also important. We can't do this alone. No provider can do this alone. And so I I think kind of looking outward and looking at all of the tools and resources that folks who have been in this space a long time, and I I turn again to the resource list that we put out because it's the best and the brightest of the diabetes field. You know, you've got the American Diabetes Association resources, D PAX resources, breakthrough T1D, just a whole host of folks who think about this day in and day out.
Who are lending their expertise to this effort to make sure that no one loses access to care and treatment.
Paola Acevedo
Thank you for that. And thank you for those special shout-outs to ADCS, to Dana Tech, and all of the organizations that you mentioned. I know folks are working extremely hard to make sure that these resources are available to us as providers. And I know there's probably some patient-facing materials and resources in the mix there as well. And as you mentioned, we'll have all of this in the show notes. I think this is probably gonna be the longest show notes that we've ever had, but we need it, we so need it for this.
Now, as we close, what is the one action that you would encourage every diabetes care and education specialist or other healthcare providers to take before the end of the year to help protect patients' access to affordable and continuous diabetes care in 2027?
Amy Killelea
I'm gonna leave us with a little bit of a a different action step that is more forward thinking. I think we've talked about many of the actions that are necessary to make sure that folks living with diabetes maintain access to care and treatment. But I'm, I think at heart an optimist and a sort of systems thinker. And so I'm I'm looking kind of at a longer time horizon to think these are all challenges that are happening in real time, but can we kind of envision a healthcare system and a health coverage system and health coverage policies that have less friction for people, that have less affordability pain points. So my maybe parting words are nothing's inevitable. Nothing is about how we have structured our health coverage system and the way that people get health insurance coverage in this country is inevitable. They are all subject to policy choices and decisions. And I think that diabetes care educators and providers have such an important role to play in informing the policies that ultimately drive access and good outcomes for people with diabetes. So I think even though times are are somewhat challenging right now and it it's easy to kind of be in that moment of we have to get through the next month, the next year, the next two years. I think we're also in a space where we can't forget to sort of look up and think, okay, we are also in a spot where we can help inform a different vision and a vision that is far less burdensome for people living with diabetes and other chronic and complex conditions.
Paola Acevedo
Thank you, Amy, not only for helping us understand these complicated changes, but also for leaving us with a sense of hope and a much more clear path forward as we continue advocating for our patience and as we ourselves continue to learn about these changes and as you mentioned, things that aren't even set in stone yet.
Amy Killelea
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Paola Acevedo
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