Medical Health Insurance For Diabetes

Recently I was reading an article about ‘Uninsured Diabetes’ by David and Elizabeth Edelman and realised how fortunate I am living in the UK where I do not have to pay for my medication because I am a diabetic.

Several years ago I encountered a number of health problems and the end result was that I was diagnosed as being a diabetic and put directly onto insulin. To be honest if I had to pay for the test strips, meter, insulin, clinic visits, podiatrist, dietician and endocrinologist I would be broke or dead! However, God Bless England, because once you are diagnosed as a diabetic and receiving treatment with insulin to control it, you do not have to pay for any medication whatsoever, even medication that is not related to diabetes.

However for my cousins across the pond it is story is very different. Unless you have medical insurance you have to find some way to pay for your diabetic medication and supplies. Unfortunately, many health insurance companies do not cover diabetes and even if you find a company that does it is more than likely that your premiums will be expensive.

So what do you do if you cannot afford medical insurance? For Type 1 Diabetics it is particularly difficult because they need insulin every day in order to remain healthy and alive. Type 1 Diabetics do not produce any insulin and depend on the synthetic formulas in order to survive. That is why it must be extremely difficult in countries where there is no national health service which provides free medication and understands the difficulties that diabetics encounter.

I suppose the best advice I can give is to shop around to obtain the best and most affordable healthcare insurance that specializes in diabetic health insurance. Plus when you are purchasing supplies, insulin and pills buy generic alternatives to the branded name products as they can be as much as 1/2 the price!

So far as Type 2 Diabetes is concerned it has to be said that it can be managed through a regime of pills, diet and exercise. Sadly, however, as much as 60% of diabetics who initially take pills and follow a diet progress from pills to injecting insulin, which is much more expensive. This figure is particularly high when you consider that Type 2 diabetes can be reversed with consumption of the right type of foods, physical exercise and weight loss.

Type 2 Diabetics face the same problems as Type 1 diabetics in relation to obtaining health insurance, and the same principles mentioned above apply, but as a Type 2 diabetic you have the option of not requiring health insurance because you can reduce or eliminate any dependence on medication by taking control and aiming to reversing your diabetes and begin to produce insulin naturally. This can be achieved by following tried and tested diabetes reversing guidelines.

However, there does appear to be relief on the horizon and maybe Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms may help to alleviate the financial burden that people with diabetes face.

DeAnna Dubis