It’s an expensive disease to manage. While the price of insulin continues to increase, the personal monetary cost of diabetes, particularly type 1 continues to rise. In some cases, depending on whether a person is covered by a medical insurance, it can result in additional expenses of $1,000 a month.
The roughly 1.25 million American suffering from type 1 diabetes have more than just insulin to purchase. There are test strips, lancets, syringes alcohol swabs, glucose monitors and insulin pumps and emergency drugs like glucagon that a diabetic requires to live a healthy life.
These costs are particularly difficult for low-income Americans making it difficult for them rise out of poverty. With the average medical expenditures reaching about $13,000 a year, a person with diabetes spends to two to three times as much on their health compared to a person who does not have the disease.
Sufferers of diabetes who do not have health insurance pay 79 percent fewer visits to a physician and make 55 percent more visits to emergency rooms than diabetics with health insurance.
So if you’re taking a financial hit trying to manage your diabetes, here are three tips that can help you better manage the costs.
– Buy from bulk suppliers. Hirsch notes that Freestyle Lite Strips from the store can cost up $2,000 dollars a year, but can be reduced to $1,000 if you purchase the strips in bulk from online suppliers like ebay and Amazon.
– Shop around. Prices for diabetes medicines vary from pharmacy to pharmacy.
– Pharmaceutical companies offer financial assistance programs. So check out some of the major suppliers of diabetes medications and supplies and apply to their assistance programs.
