Bell the younger has a shot at getting the consistent, ongoing care so necessary for diabetics. Under an Obama plan, he might be able to choose coverage in the public plan, assuming subsidies that are high enough to cover the premiums. If by some chance the legislative sausage grinder turns out a provision for automatic enrollment in existing public plans, like Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), he would qualify, giving him fairly comprehensive benefits and a way to pay for care. All this assumes, of course, he can still pay the modest copayments that would likely be required, and that the federal government offers the states enough funding to provide additional coverage for currently ineligible people like Bell the younger.

If a public program doesn’t come out of the legislative give and take, or if insurers are successful at maintaining their ability to turn away bad risks like Bell, he might remain uninsured, relying on his dad to pay the doctors and Abbott Laboratories to give him the test strips.

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