When Paying for Insurance Makes Paying for Diabetes Supplies Impossible

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The Cost of a Chronic Illness – Tuesday 5/16
Insulin and other diabetes medications and supplies can be costly. Here in the US, insurance status and age (as in Medicare eligibility) can impact both the cost and coverage. So today, let’s discuss how cost impacts our diabetes care. Do you have advice to share? For those outside the US, is cost a concern? Are there other factors such as accessibility or education that cause barriers to your diabetes care? (This topic was inspired by suggestions from Rick and Jen.)

Diabetes is one of the most costly conditions in the US. For many of us who depend on life-saving insulin, the cost can be astronomical every month. With insulin ranging from $200-300 per vial (depending on what type and where you get it) to over $500 per pack of insulin pens, it’s hard to understand how any family can make it when they have to not only pay for the insulin but other supplies like test strips.

I have good insurance now through my husband’s employer, however, it wasn’t always that way for me. I worked a job where there were only 5 employees, and my boss was not required to offer benefits. The plan that was offered was group health insurance through the parent company we worked for, but I paid 100% of the cost. The only thing I could afford on my just-above-minimum-wage paycheck was a premium that was $450 (and this was 10 years ago too), but it also carried a deductible of $2500 – and one that absolutely nothing was covered, not even prescriptions – until this deductible was met. So, if I had even paid for the deductible to even get to the 70% co-insurance by December, I I would have paid $7,900 total. So I did the only thing I could do.

I bought my insulin bottle by bottle, and rationed my insulin – running my sugars in the 200-400 range. I can even remember the pharmacy technician asking me if I had insurance to cover any part of the cost. (And what is mindblowing is that the very same insulin I bought then has tripled in price since then.)

I also had an insulin pump, and I would wear the sites for a week or longer if I could – most of which would become infected.

I rarely checked my blood sugar because I couldn’t afford the $80 per box for test strips that I needed.

I didn’t even go to a doctor, let alone an endocrinologist, for an entire year.

So, how does cost affect diabetes care? It affects it directly. If a person is too strapped to afford to even pay for medical coverage, how can they also be expected to pay the exorbitant costs of the supplies that they also need?

It’s not enough for people to have coverage – they need coverage that is both affordable and helps pay for the medications and supplies they need. Otherwise, more and more people will be in the same boat as I was — and so many are now — due to catastrophic plans being the only thing that is remotely affordable: skipping appointments and rationing medications and supplies just to pay for the healthcare they may never be able to use. And with insulin being the highest of all yet most necessary, it’s certainly not something anyone should ever have to ration.

People with diabetes and other costly conditions need better access to the medications and supplies they need, without it costing a literal arm, leg, or eye to get it.

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