Diabetic Recipes
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.
Yes, Diabetes is expensive & going up like everything else. Thank goodness I have an understanding Doctor & switched me over to medicenes that had generic counterparts so my medicene costs went for $300+ per month (no insurance, lost job) to $20.00 a month at Walmart. He also gave me samples of my insulin to tide me over. I just got another job & it will be about 3 months until my new insurance kicks in...but anyone having problems should see if the Walmart near them has started the $4.00 prescriptions yet. It has been a life saver to me & my husband (he is on perminant disability so he hasn't had as many problems with his medicenes)
We order our supplies from an online pharmacy. 3 months of supplies costs us a single co-pay because we have the prescription written for 3 months of supplies 4 times a year rather than one month of supplies 12 times per year.
We order from Neighborhood Diabetes if you want to look into it. They're out of Massachusettes.
I hear you. When I had crappy jobs with no health insurance, I was on the state's CHIP plan. It was the only thing I could get that didn't disqualify you for that "presumed uninsurable condition" nonsense. The monthly premium was $450 (that was for me alone) and the yearly deductible was $2500. I used to schedule all my "major" bloodwork late in the year because I'd have hit the deductible amount by then. They also did not cover test strips, so I had to buy those out-of-pocket.
Something is horribly wrong with the way things are. I'm scared to even consider going without insurance. But it's not just diabetes; a friend of mine once got turned down for an individual policy because her cholesterol levels were high. She was deemed a "cardiac risk". WTF?!
You know, I don't care what certain segments are saying about Wal-Mart's corporate profits being astronomical. Their pharmacy program is about the best thing to come along in many years. Sure you stay in the store and maybe buy something else, but look at how they have cut our costs on things we need. Even with my insurance (TRICARE Prime, as I am a military retiree), Sometimes we have to get something from a civilian pharmacy. They make it affordable. And no, we retired military no longer get the free care for life we were promised our entire careers. We have premiums (I admit tht they are lower than any civilian plan I've seen) and co-pays too. Of course, Washington is now talking about tripling our premiums. We also don't get vision or dental, unless we buy a separate plan for dental. I do feel for those civilians that have to pay. I wish there were a way we could reduce the costs, but I don't see it coming.
Unfortunately Wal-Mart's $4 Rx plan doesn't cover insulin, test strips or pump supplies (infusion sets, etc.) so it doesn't cut down the cost of diabetes for pumpers. Until my doctors fought with my insurance company and got my test strip usage approved, they would only cover "their portion" of 4 a day, not the 12+ a day I average. I kept getting the "test less" line from the insurance company too. Health insurance companies are sooooo aggravating!!
Whoops! I forgot to say... If you have to pay for test strips and insulin with cash, Costco is the cheapest place I have found to buy them. At least where I live, they are quite a bit less than Wal-Mart.
I guess my family is fortunate. Our insurance covers test strips and we don't pay anything. Which is good because my husband and my son are diabetic and test around ten times a day each.
If there's anything that will put you in stress mode, it's insurance and cost of diabetes. I don't have the cost, thank God because I have a thing called Community care at age 65. Office call- $5.00, Specialist-$25.00, $50.00 Emerg. Rm. and $135.00 a day the 1st 5 days and nothing after or over that and if the ER vist ends up admission, the $50.00 is waived. Also no Premium for this insurance and all supplies covered, no chg. I pay $5.00 co-pay for all meds. WOW! Is that not good? Everyone ought to have this choice no matter what age. The insurance companies have our health by a throat hold. It's all up to them and they're slowly killing off people and the people with medicare are now getting denied by Drs. Not taking new Pts. There ought to be a law against this. This Ins. is a castrophie for working people like you. The emp. are making you pay more and more and a whole lot of people are dropping it to be able to pay bills and food. It's a true crime of America. Universal healthcare is going to be a big joke and don't even want to see the outcome of it. Well, I've vented. thanks and I see your nightmare. I waited till I was 65 to go to the Dr. when I found out I was Diabetic because like you, it was so costly.