Living with any illness can be expensive. However, living with diabetes can be outrageously expensive without good health insurance coverage. BETTER dives a little deeper into the struggles and facts on how expensive it can be. Although recently there has been a decline in costs for insulin products, in the U.S., insulin prices jumped 10.3% between 2016 and 2019. Insulin is not the only medication diabetics need. There are the needles for the insulin pens, a special long-acting insulin, blood sugar meters and the small equipment necessary to operate one, and much more depending on what type of diabetes you have. The company, BETTER, gives statistics based on Canada’s pricing and insurance plans. However, the statements made in their article are not too far off from what everyone else is dealing with pricewise. They quote, “…the lower the family’s income is, the higher the proportion that they spend on diabetes-related expenses.” The Canadian out of pocket costs for Type One Diabetes in 2022 was around $3,100 per year. That’s more than some individual’s rent! It is an ongoing battle to try and lower costs for medicine and medical products. Most people are diagnosed with diseases that just happen out of the blue. Type One Diabetes is one of those diseases. Unfortunately, a lot of people experience this worldwide with either the lack of health insurance coverage or not making enough per year to afford medical products. Regardless, people need their medication to survive. BETTER provided some websites that help cover out of pocket diabetes costs, which is very resourceful. With the American Diabetes Association (ADA), they too provide resources and rules on how to cover diabetic supply out-of-pocket costs. BETTER also stated that some diabetics had such high costs for diabetic supplies that they went against medical advice. Diabetes requires medication hourly, so reporting that some people avoided costs by not getting more diabetic supplies is a major concern. Although there are resources available for out-of-pocket costs, a change needs to be made in order for people reliant on medication to survive.
