Diabetes and Money

It's a sad fact that the more money you have, the better you can manage your diabetes. The more money you have, the more tools are available to you.

For example, while I don't have to pay to go the doctor or spend time in hospital, I would still have to pay to have an insulin pump or a continuous glucose monitoring system. I don't currently have a job, and when I did have a job, my medical benefits were limited to $500 a year. And that was after having that job for six years with no medical benefits. An insulin pump costs around $6,000 to $7,000. There are payment plans, but since I don't have a job at the moment -- and the job I did have was seasonal -- there is no payment plan that fits me.

Currently there are no private or public insurance plans that will pay for a continuous glucose monitoring system (CGMS). The attitude of insurers seems to be that the finger-poke blood testing system works just fine and doesn't need to be replaced. The problem is that while a finger-poke blood test will tell you what your blood sugar is at any given time, it won't give you a trend. It won't tell you if your blood sugar is on the way up or on the way down, which can be very important information.

I am not one to go around saying that pharmaceutical companies are evil. They make products that I need in order to manage my diabetes, and there is no reason why they shouldn't make a profit, because they are businesses first and foremost. They aren't in it for altruistic reasons. I certainly wish their products were less expensive, but I don't expect them to give them away for free.

I think the problem is with the insurance providers, both public and private. They will almost always choose to pay for the cheapest option, regardless of whether the patient will benefit more from the more expensive option. Insurance providers don't generally look at the long term. If there is a product that is more expensive than another, it doesn't matter that that product will save money in the long run by delaying or preventing long-term diabetes health complications. All the insurance provider looks at is the up-front cost.