How is the extra expense of diabetes weighing you down?
It sucks. I’m self-employed, with a high deductible insurance plan. Diabetes is going to cost me over $300/month, on top of the monthly premium. Hopefully it won’t be much more than that - insurance kicks in once we meet our premium.
I just hope our monthly premiums don’t go up too much every year. And I hope that we really do get some health care reform that would at a minimum allow me to shop around for different policies. Right now I’m stuck with what I had pre-diagnosis, because no other company will take on someone diagnosed with diabetes.
i know how you both feel…IT SUCKS!! 
i’m constantly thinking when i test “well there goes another $1”. diabetics need help!!
do you have an insurance plan through work or your own personal plan?? if it is your own personal plan can i ask who the provider is??
I have Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia POS and I pay at least $550 a month out of pocket plus the insurance deductible. They do pay 100% of my pump supply and CGMS sensors so I can’t complain too much I guess.
well i’m guessing with such a good company and it’s through your work you’d be paying a whole lot more for that plan if you were an individual. thanks for the info tho!!
i don’t have insurance, i try and get as much help through patient assistence programs. My insulin is free, and my doc apts are discounted. I have enough trouble paying 80 dollars a month in test strips and whatever i pay for the doc. I’m struggling with just that. It sounds like having insurance isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. But then again if you went to the ER and I went, then you would have two very different prices (huge er bill for me, but they do have sliding scales).
Is having a pump more expensive?
we should create a half way house for diabetics, especially the ones that are about to lose their jobs
I’ve had db for 35 years and it always seems to have weighed me down financially. And now, as I age, I need more oral meds for bloood pressure, cholesterol, etc - insulin and oral meds cost me $400 per month out of pocket, and yes, I have insurance.
But, it is what it is and for the most part I don’t dwell on it. I recently was faced with a large car repair so I gave it up, completely. Now I walk and take the bus. My living room couch sags, and I have had one vacation in the last 30 years - blah blah blah. But, fortunately, I don’t owe any money and still have a b’zillion ways I could cut back, if necessary. (please, not the computer)
we definitely fight over food, we would have to lock all the good snacks away, AND we would have big jugs of orange juice for lows. A person roaming the halls at night to make sure nobody goes low. And a mean old nurse to hand out our pills.
i just saw this commercial on tv for sprint. i tried to find it on you tube so i could post it here. it was a lady who pushed a wheelbarrow (sp?) of loose change up to a water fountain and just started shoveling it in. they then said “feel like you are throwing away all of your money?”. haha i laughed because that is what spending all your money on D supplies feels like to me!!
well, iam still young and sometimes i depend upon my father’s insurance,but mostly on the hospital that is operated by our governments that gives medication for free,and it weighs my government.they spent 3 billion dollars aproxomately the last year for paying medications for only diabetes and its com;ications
but i sometimes need some strips and dont have the time to have an appointment so i just go to the nearst pharmacy…wich is really bad…
sorry i couldnt help that much
Well Folks …I posted a blog on April 7, 2009 ,asking people in British Columbia, Canada to e-mail their candidates for the upcoming election , May 12, 2009 to make Diabetes a priority …Only 10 days to go and NO one responded to my post . , We as tax payers in our beautiful province are maybe missing a chance to be heard ??..Is this called complacency or ??
Am I missing the boat or ??
I am not even answering Domo’s question …just please bear with me , till I feel more empowered to do so .
Fortunately I have insurance, but the co-pays are still high. Like everyone, it’s tough financially. I’m on three different insulins. We do without to pay for my supplies. I’m not helping the US auto industry by driving a 17 year old car & hope it passes its next inspection!
Since being diagnosed, our food expenses have increased.
Can you imagine what you might have (material wealth, peace of mind, education, opportunity) if you had NOT had to spend money on diabetes all these years? I remember reading an article in 1999 that said that a diabetic can expect to spend a third of their annual income on their diabetes. In my history, that’s been kind of a high estimate, but not unreasonable either. I probably have spent a quarter of the money I’ve made on supplies and doctor visits and COBRA premiums. But how could you even tally the expense of the dietary needs that made you reach for one brand of food over a less costly, less nutritious product?
If I had not had to spend the money all those years, I wonder if I would have spent it wisely on other things or maybe saved it toward a retirement fund I’d always meant to start. I wonder if my parents would have been less burdened financially. I wonder if I’d be the type to have a closet full of designer shoes. Or if I could have gotten by without the student loans, at least.
Or is it more what we’ve had to give up in order to spend that money on our diabetes? I remember using my college graduation money toward a pump upgrade - to what else could it have been allocated? It could have paid for a class in grad school? Who knows?
Great question, Domo!
Great questions, Melissa. I was diagnosed late, a different frame of reference from those dealing with Type 1 since childhood. Did I appreciate eating whatever I wanted in whatever quantity I wanted? No. Was I grateful going to sleep not worried about overnight lows? Of course not. Did I ever think what it was like to be a PWD, or even know much about it? Nope. Don’t think I ever had peace of mind, but certainly not like the worries now.
Know I didn’t spend money wisely before, though I’ve never had much to squander either.
Think you’ve hit the target–it’s more everything we’ve had to give up & what the people who love us have had to give up. Bothers me endlessly what my diabetes has done to my husband, our future.
Hope this doesn’t sound too hokey, but I really try to live with more gratitude because who knows what I’m able to do now that I might not be able to do a few years down the road due to D. I’m saddened & humbled by everything I took for granted.
My father makes anywhere from $300 to $400 a week. Between food shopping and bills, it’s really killing our budget. Test strips cost about $50-$60 for just 50, and that usually lasts me about a week or less. Insulin pens are too expensive for us to buy, so we’ve been getting sample pens the whole time from the endo. I applied for Medicaid a little while ago, so I hope I get coverage soon. It makes me feel like a burden, really.
I don’t have health insurance, either. I take three insulins, something for hypertension, and something for cholesterol. I pay cash for my meds which is one reason I use Novolin N rather than Lantus ($24 a month as opposed to $200 a month), Regular ($22 a month), and Novolog ($115 a month), but I use the vials of Novolog rather than pens and I use it sparingly. My doctor wants me to be more liberal with it but she isn’t paying for it so I don’t. My BP and chol. medications are $4 generics and they’re working fine so far.
The test strips just about eat me alive, though. I test very frequently and spend about $60 a week on strips. Then you throw in the cost of physician visits and lower carb, healthy food and yeah, its very expensive! But what can I do? Keep on keeping on. I’m blessed to be able to handle what I’ve been given. 
Over this summer, I’m going to be without insurance. I came from a province where pretty much everything was covered by the government, and now Ontario doesn’t. I’ve had my university insurance for the whole time I’ve been here, but I have no coverage for the next 4 months. I was hoping to travel and see the world before I bunker down for another 4 years of my life…
I went to the pharmacy to stock up on drugs before I was no longer covered. The pharmacist was judging me for using as many test strips as I do. I know that they generally only cover 10/day, so I told him that, then he asked how many I used - I told him generally a few more than that, not that I was asking for more coverage, because I knew he couldn’t cover it, but he told me that maybe someone should use that when they start an insulin pump, but certainly not after 3 months…
What the heck! CGM technology?!? have you ever heard of it? grr!