ER patient who should not have needed the ER

A friend of mine (Fred) told me last night that a friend of his, a newly diagnosed type 2, had been to the emergency room earlier that day. That was all Fred would say. This is the back story:

About a month ago, Fred was gone from work for several hours. By eavesdropping, I learned he had been gone since a friend had collapsed and been taken to the local hospital. It turns out his friend's blood sugar was (around) 340 and his A1C was around 9. The  emergency room doc put this man on metformin and taught him how to use a blood meter.

This man works 38 hours/week but this is not enough for him to get medical insurance. Had he medical insurance, his MD could have treated him and his diabetes would probably been under control. But, he doesn't have the insurance and doesn't have his condition under control.

The best I can do from him is suggest he go to the Diabetic Support group. I go to this group. It consists of the facilitator, a retired lady and me. Given the county I live in has a 9.1% diagnosed-as-diabetic level, there should be about 3,003 diabetics available for our diabetics support group. It is hard to advertise the group.

The next county west of us has a lot fewer people but an active evening support group, which publishes a monthly newsletter. It is run by the county Health Department. It would be nice if our county Health Department would do the same!