Living with Diabetes by Julie V. Watson

Author:Julie V. Watson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn Press

TRAVEL INSURANCE

Again, read the fine print. Make sure your travel insurance doesn’t exclude you from benefits because of a pre-existing condition. Don’t try to hide your diabetes and then later find out the policy is worthless. The Canadian Diabetes Association does have a travel health insurance program for members, so check it out.

COST SAVERS

Okay, let’s tell it like it is. Diabetes is an expensive disease. No getting around it. But there are some things that people can do that are not all that expensive.

For instance, you could save quite a lot of money each month if you quit smoking. There is no cost related to getting the activity you need. The cost of low-dose Aspirin is four dollars a month, and a multivitamin will be about eight dollars a month.

There are of course drug costs and insulin supplies on top of that.

And those costs can be frightening. A quick tally of the expenses in our household showed that we pay out about $350 to $400 per month for drugs and supplies covered under our health care plan. Figure that out. We pay 20 percent. We are among the fortunate who have a medical plan that covers 80 percent of most drugs, insulin supplies, and dental, as well as eyeglasses every two years. Just imagine if we had to pay the whole shot! We simply could not do it. But even with our health care plan, we still have many expenses; the plan does not, for example, cover the frequent changes he needs in glasses.

Our provincial government recently increased the cost of insulin to and oral agents by $2 to $3 per unit (depending on whether you buy vials, cartidges or oral agents), estimating that most Islanders would have to pay only an extra $12 per month. Well, in our case they underestimated the number of cartridges used per month. I estimate this rise in insulin cost would impact our family by about $30 per month if our drug plan didn’t pick up the extra cost. Doesn’t sound like much, but add that onto our already frightening costs and it’s easy to see why people are so upset about health care.

TIP

Take advantage of offers for free samples. For example, Accu-Chek recently included a card for a free test strip drum in one of its mailouts. You can also often get a tester free if you buy strips. If you don’t use these offers yourself, then pass them along. They can save money. Disetronic, the makers of Jack’s insulin pump, recently enclosed a coupon for free samples — we sent for them by return mail.

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