okay so in the process of getting a pump in Australia. However my private health will cover the pump it will not cover and cgm just wondering how people can afford them when insurance can’t cover them 
thanks
I live in Australia and currently have the 640g. I signed up for the 12 month subscription so I am paying the $250 a month for 5 sensors. It’s not cheap that’s for sure!
I’m in a similar boat, I don’t yet have a pump but my health insurance will cover it, but not the CGM.
I’ve personally made the decision recently that I am going to fund the dexcom G5 CGM for myself. The only way I can afford this is by cutting out some of my excess finances in other areas. I figure I’ll trial it for the first transmitter life span; if the results are good I can then possibly justify the cost.
The positive is if you get the pump, usually that acts as a receiver so it reduces some of the CGM cost.
I suppose we can only hope that Australian health insurance companies get on board the CGM technology in the near future. With more pumps now becoming integrated it’s hard to see how they can’t.
Does any other Australians know if that is something that the government can legislate? How do the funds decide what they will and won’t cover? My understanding of the insulin pump coverage is that the government basically forced health funds to cover type 1 diabetics for insulin pumps.
I’m not an Australian, so please forgive my comment if I’m missing something important here. I’m wondering what Australian private insurance as well as public health policy will do once artificial pancreas systems appear, complete with the studies to show that this technology helps people with diabetes as well as reduces long term health costs.
Good question Terry! I’ve wondered the same thing. We have a national diabetes service scheme in Australia, which means things like needles and test strips are all covered or subsidised. So typically that means rather than paying like $50-60 on a set of test strips we pay $15.
As it stands CGM is not covered under the NDSS nor is it covered by any private health insurer that I’m aware of. With Medtronic just announcing the 670G that may change but I believe it would need to come from government first.
It’s also possible that they will have some system where it’s available for more ‘vulnerable’ diabetics.
If any of you guys are on twitter, follow #ozdoc or @ozdiabetesoc over there, they hold tweetchats every tuesday evening australian time.
nice folks, maybe you can even get them to have one of the chats discussing one of your topics!
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the Libra sensor is available for $100 a month, obviously it doesn’t have the bells and whistles. It will give good basic info for showing where tuning your insulin and food would help.
I would also look at doing a couple of other things. one is the pump un-tethered 50/50 basal
and the other would be low carb Bernstein or similar
Hi, I was wondering if anyone here in Australia has been given an explanation as to why if we purchase a Dexcom G5 transmitter we ONLY get one. In the US they are provided TWO transmitters because the warranty period is 3 months and with two transmitters you get six months coverage similar to the G4. Why don’t we get the same deal??? As far as I am aware the UK and possibly other NON-US countries only get one G5 transmitter as well. I have emailed Dexcom for an explanation as to me it is discrimination.