I´m talking here about the other numbers. Those that hurt as much as a bad A1C result. I´m talking prices. I´m talking about the cost of dealing with a VERY VERY expensive illness.
Last week I bought my One Touch Ultra Test Strips, 50/Box…I payed 146 argentinian pesos ( 50 usd). This means that we´re paying 1 dollar for each test strip. And if you think about doing things the “right way” you need AT LEAST to use 3 per day. Your 50 units box will last two weeks.
With these absurd prices…how can we really do things…the right way?
Thank God for insurance, I’m paying around $100 a month for copays on insulin and supplies! I use around 6-7 strips a day on my son, I have a prescription for 300 a month.
I pay $150 a month for prescriptions and about the same for health insurance. Then add in a doctor appointment and medical tests almost every month. And this is just maintenance. I can’t imagine how much it would be if I had complications. I think this is something that will be different for all of us depending on where we live and what kind of insurance we have.
This stinks, and its one reason patients do not test as often as doctors and educators think they should. Its not just that its uncomfortable, its also darn expensive!!
Don’t move here so fast! I’m self employed and I pay $500 each month for my insurance. Just for me. Not the rest of the family who pay for theirs separately out of their business earnings. And I still have to pay $25 copays for strips and insulin.
In the U.S. if you aren’t employed by a big company, and if you have a preexisting condition, you may not be able to get any insurance at all, no matter what your income might be. I am lucky to live in a State, Massachusetts, that makes decent insurance available to all irrespective of pre-existing condition.
But there are other States I’d like to live where my spouse and I couldn’t buy health insurance coverage because we both have pre-existing conditions. Or we could for $1,500 a month. And in some other states, you can buy insurance, but then when you go to claim they won’t pay and you have no recourse except a law suit, which of course, you can’t afford That happened to me in CT. .
Diabetes is an expensive condition, though for perspective, I have a friend with Multiple Sclerosis who lives in a state where she can’t buy insurance. The drugs for MS cost $20,000 a year. Each. So that makes diabetes look like a bargain. Plus, we folks with diabetes have a much better chance of living a long and comfortable life.
This is the worst type of numbers! My daughter and I both just got our 522 pump, our insurance only paid a small portion, our balance for each pump is $1,780.00 double that for two pumps. I get 400 strips/month and she gets 300strips a month. Thats $60 for strips a month. Imagine without insurance! We used to pay $30 for 100 syringes. Double that for two. Our insulin is $30 a month, double that. Now, we have yet to be billed for our pump supplies, but we are maxed out for DME (Durable Medical Equipment) thru our insurance because we purchased the pumps. So, that COULD be $600 a month (or 3 months?) for us both to have pump supplies every 3months. We are working with our insurance, they SHOULD consider pump supplies as disposable medical supplies in which is covered at 100%. If not, we are screwed. I am planning to purchase and pay out of pocket for the CGMS for my 6yr old. Sensors…$30 every 7 days or so. Go back to December when my daughter was diagnosed, three days in the hospital covered at only 80%…thats 1,400.00 we are still slaving to pay off. This really, really sucks for our family.
I work for a large company that has offices nationwide, and can provide their employees with good healthbenefits. As a single person, I pay $150 per month toward my insurance premium. There is no copayment for strips and syringes. I use about 8 strips a day. I use 2 insulins, with a copay of $20 each, and take oral meds for depression, blood pressure, hypothyroidism and sleep. My copays for these total $90 per month. If I’m hospitalizzed, I have a copay of $500. And office visits cost me $15 each time.
I feel I’ve got a really good bargain here, and am thankful for it.
I’m really thankful to have the medical coverage I do through work. It does involve fairly large copayments for insulin ($25 per vial/cartridge), but syringes are cheap, and test strips/lancets are free.
I do remember having trouble getting the legally required number of test strips from them and having to buy my own a few times just after I was diagnosed. Having to go out and spend $40 on less than a week’s worth of supplies just for testing my BG was really depressing, especially since I couldn’t even afford to do so.
It’s amazing to me that doctors and medical groups emphasize stress reduction in the treatment of diabetes, but then put their patients through so much hassle for supplies that they need to live.
In Australia there is a government run scheme called ‘Diabetes Australia’. I get a box of 50 strips for about $5. That would be about $3 USD. It’s really cheap. If you can get a health card it would cost $1AUD for a box of 50 test strips. I can’t get onto that because I earn too much.
I have to pay for my Novo Rapid and Lantus. I paid about $80 and got 25 flex pens and about 25 of the Lantus cartridges. I thought that was pretty cheap. Syringes are free.
I pay about $60 co pay for 100 strips a month. when I was testing 6 times a day I ran out a week early but now I’m doing it 2 times a day and I’m ok. my insulin and syringes and lancets are less $20-40 per month each. I still feel like I pay alot. but its better than no covorage. diabetes aint cheap!!
I pay about $140 a month on insurance premiums, and they cover lancets, needles, and test strips at 100%. I get 250 strips a month, while most only get 100. In order to get more strips, your doctor has to specifically request you test 4-8 times a day. I pay $25 for each box of 5 insulin pens, and $20 for a regular dr.'s appt & $30 for a specialist. That ads up though! I’ve been to the endo at least 5 times in 3 months to a tune of $150.
My company has a mail-order pharmacy. Basically, any drugs or equipment used on a regular basis (like all of my diabetic supplies) you have to get through the mail-order service. I get a 3 month supply for a flat fee of $70.00.
So, when I order strips, I get 3 boxes of strips. Each box has 100 strips in it. I don’t really know if this is a bargain or not. I guess it is, considering 100 strips would cost me almost $100, and I get 300 for $70.00. When I order insulin, I usually get 4 bottles of each (Humalog and Lantus) $70.00 each.
I am just glad I have some type of insurance - otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to afford being diabetic, like many of you.
Just the other day, I figured up how much I’ve spent so far this year on Diabetes Meds, Labs, Doc visits, and Supplies (out of pocket, because I don’t have insurance). $2198. That would actually be more, if I wasn’t so broke for a few months, and really limited my testing, so I could make my strips last as long as possible. I can easily spend $200 - $300 per month on test strips alone.
Hubby’s employer is supposed to be getting insurace, anytime now. We’re awaiting on SOMBODY, to get it going with an isurance company! We know it’ll be either Kaiser or BCBS. We’ll see how much that will cost for ME to be insured, and IF they’ll cover my Diabetes or not, since it is a pre-existing condition, and if they will cover me, is MY Endo even on their “list”!?
Even though I am Australian, I live in Ireland and I am pleased but also embarrassed to say that anything diabetic and pump related is absolutely free, we also get payments for having a child with disease of about Euro 15, 000 per year (20,000 American or Australian 24,000, not sure how many pesos) on top of our own wage, my daughter also has a fulltime special needs assistant who is at school with her for the first few years of her schooling to look after her needs, saying that, 12 months on the pump her control is still very poor despite our best efforts.
Its dissapointing that certain countries treat their ill very unfairly while others generours, nearly over generous…
