Yeah, I know. Duh, right?

I was just reading a post over at Diabetes Daily by Bernard Farrell. He was discussing the astronomical cost of test strips. It is ridiculous that they cost $1 a piece. On an average day, Olivia tests 8 - 10 times. When she's sick, it's even more frequent. That's $10 a day, just in test strips.

The insurance company's answer to this, usually, is "Well, test less frequently." Yeah, you know where you can shove that statement, bucko. Get lost.

But why aren't the insurance companies pushing back on this? Why are they content to let manufacturers charge so freakin' much for test strips? I don't understand it.

I've done this before, but I think it's time to break down what diabetes costs us every month.

-- Approximately $750 for health insurance. Per month. Yeah. Ouch.

-- $50 per month for insulin

-- $50 per month for test strips

-- $10 per month for pump supplies

And that's with health insurance. If we didn't have that, our costs would be unaffordable. $300 for test strips alone. Another $300 for insulin. $175 for 15 infusion sets (and that's if none of them go bad early). Plus the $300 it costs 4 times a year to see the endocrinologist.

I realize the insurance thing is for all of us, so maybe I should divide that number by 5.

That's still $260 a month on diabetes alone. That is a lot of money.

One month without health insurance was enough to scare the crap out of me. I don't know what we'll do if my husband's insurance rates go even higher. I mean, we'll have to pay them, but holy cow. What we pay in insurance every month is almost what we pay for rent. I don't think health care should cost that much. I just don't.

I don't know what the solution is, but there has to be something better than this. Something that doesn't entail us moving to Canada.