I feel like I am drowning in all the debts from my diabetes! I simply cannot afford it anymore. I do have health insurance thru my husband's employer, but everything is still so expensive. I have spent over $1,800 since last July on prescriptions and dr. appts. And this does not include my over the counter stuff like alcohol swabs, lancets, glucose tablets, etc. I have tried getting assistance thru our hospital but we don't qualify because we are over the income limit (and we don't even make that much!) We are by no means a wealthy family but we don't seem to qualify for any help or assistance. Does anyone know if there is any help out there?!
Ask your hospital or endo clinic if there is a social worker you can speak with. They may be able to help you navigate various channels to look for assistance. I would also make sure you are submitting as much as possible to your insurance or that you are getting your supplies in the most covered way possible thru insurance. For instance, if we buy test strips at the pharmacy, we do not get insurance coverage, but if we buy them in 90day supplies from a durable medical good supplier we get them covered (after we meet our deductible.). I know lancets are THAT expensive, but we have a Rx for those and so insurance covers. The other reason to know what your annual out of pocket maximum is for your insurance.
Annual out of pocket expense is $1,800. Which we have met, but guess what? It starts all over July 1st. So once again I have to dish out another $1,800. That's only medical insurance also. Not dental or vision. I am going to the eye doctor once a month (I'm pregnant) and that's $40 each time. I have been talking with our local hospital about financial assistance for the past couple months. They won't even give me partial coverage. I tried asking my endo about samples but the hospital doesn't do that anymore. I pay $25 for every vial of insulin. I use roughly 120-130 units every 3 days in my pump so 1 vial doesn't last too long. I get a 3 month supply of FreeStyle test strips which I wanna say costs about $125 but I recently got into the FreeStyle membership program so my 3 month supply now costs $75. My 3 month supply of pods cost about $168. It costs $40 every time I go to the endo. I go once a month because I am pregnant. They of course run bloodwork and that's about $80-$90 normally. I go to the OB once a month which fortunately does not cost, but the blood work again does. And I have ultrasounds which I pay 20% of. I can't even remember everything I pay for??? I'm probably forgetting to mention something... Anyways, it's just really expensive. We just met our yearly out of pocket expense and like I said, it starts all over again July 1st. Is there NO help for diabetics?!
I don't know what insurance company you have, but call them and ask what the coverage is for supplies. Our insurance company covers supplies 100% when we order them through Liberty Medical Supplies. If we were to buy them at a pharmacy we would have to pay out of pocket.
Unfortunately, that may just be something you need to budget for. It is expensive, but at least you have health insurance to cover a good portion of it.
You might consider if your husband's employer offers a high-deductible HSA plan. Sometimes you save some money on the premiums and you put pre-tax dollars into the HSA. THat is what we have. Our deductible is $4000 for our family but it is ALSO the annual out of pocket max - so we pay 100% of all medical supplies and doctor visits until we hit that $4k mark (usually sometime over the summer). So we put $2K into the HSA every year and my husband's employer puts in $2k (since the premium is lower they do that amount). I just try to budget for that $4k at the start of every year and then am a happy camper when everything switches to being covered 100% by insurance.
I found that comparing the plans is different you have to really add up what you think you would spend on a current plan that covers maybe 80% of your visits and has co-pays and a lower deductible compared to paying 100% up to a certain amount (plus adding in the difference in premiums). But the employer's insurance provider may have tools to help you do this.