If people with Type 1 diabetes don't test their blood sugar regularly, it can result in "shooting insulin blindly," she says – and that can be dangerous. This situation has serious ramifications for people's health, Wall says. And, she says, a doctor might recommend that someone test, say, four times a day, but insurance might not cover that many boxes of strips. Co-pays can range from $5 to $75, or more, for a box of 50 or 100 strips, she says. She explains that while California law requires insurance plans to cover test strips, some charge high co-pays. Still, she estimates that about 40 percent of the people she worked with didn't test their blood sugar as often as they should – or didn't test it at all - because they couldn't afford the test strips. She says the majority of her clients were insured. I spoke with Kathleen Wall, who was a certified diabetes educator for nine years, and recently became the director of the Los Angeles Diabetes Alliance.
He wonders what happens to other people who can't afford to test as often as necessary, and don't manage their condition as meticulously as he does. "The situation with the pricing of diabetic necessities has become more than worrisome gouging for a profit is immoral," Winters wrote in an email to Impatient. So he took to the Internet to find a better deal: Boxes of 50 strips for about $31.50 per box, including shipping - a little more than 60 cents per strip. (That will finally change at the start of 2015, when he'll go on Medicare.)īut in recent years, he's struggled to afford his test strips, as the cost has jumped - from roughly 33 cents a strip at Target, to more than a dollar, he says. He's uninsured, and has paid for them out of pocket for years. Winters buys the Accu-Chek brand of test strips for his Accu-Chek Aviva meter. Still, he concedes, "I should test more – but I don't, because I can't afford it." 'Immoral' costsĭiabetics can't necessarily just choose the cheapest strip on the market there are a variety of glucose meters, and each one requires its own specific test strip. He's had diabetes for so long, he says, that he's very good at maintaining his blood sugar through nutrition and exercise. Instead, he says, he generally tests once in the morning and once at night. He told me it would be best if he checked his blood sugar four times a day. A longtime tennis player and writer, Winters has had Type 1 diabetes for more than 60 years.
This time around, we're asking about the cost of diabetes test strips. Through our #PriceCheck project, we're crowdsourcing the cost of common medical procedures and devices. Popular now on Impatient I've had one dose of the measles vaccine.
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