Or a similar chronic disease? I do not have diabetes but my girlfriend has type 1. We are American. It’s insane how much money she has to shell out just to live. Hundreds of dollars per month. Usually several hundred additional dollars if she needs a hospital visit which happens once or twice a year. We have medical debt piling on top of our school debt.
Is dealing with diseases like this as manageable as I imagine in other countries? I’ve heard other Healthcare systems aren’t great either but surely nothing is worse than this.
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If you have a prescription from a doctor you only pay a prescription fee of 7,55 € per medication.
Visiting a doctor in the public health system is usually free and fir stationary hospital visits there is a fee of around 15 € per day (varying between hospitals and states) but for max 28 days.
Both of my parents are T2 diabetics in Portugal. As patients with a chronic illness, all of the medication associated with their condition is free. Waaaay back in the day the glucose meter and accessories had a small co-pay, but I think even that is gone nowadays.
Because the system is overloaded, their check-up appointments are scheduled well in advance to make sure they’ll have a spot; if anything comes up in the meantime they’ll have a consultation over the phone and according to urgency and availability they will be directed to a nursing cabinet, a walk-in clinic, or an emergency room. Sometimes their poor, overworked doctor will pull a miracle and find some spare minutes to squeeze them in between other appointments. Consultations are free (the co-pay is waived for chronically ill patients), and ER visits have a 50€ fee that my parents’ private insurance (through my dad’s work union) will cover.
They had priority for Covid vaccinations when they rolled out, and my dad was priority for being sent away for full home office, and to be the among the last ones called back in.
One of my uncles also has T2, but because he’s a dumbass who doesn’t take care of himself, he’s had bad complications that resulted in multiple surgeries over the years. He’s only had to pay for his choice of more private rooms in the public hospital.
Obviously, “free” just means it’s paid for through taxes, but it is universally accessible even if you don’t have a cent to your name. If you are so destitute to be on government assistance, most fees are waived for you.
Norway puts a cap at about $310 USD on most user fees. Once you’ve paid that much in approved fees you receive an “exemption card” and pay zero for the rest of the calendar year.
Hospital stays are free. Anything regarding children (under 18) are free.
Insulin pumps and other equipment you loan free of charge.
If you have a low income, travel costs to clinic visits and extra costs regarding special diets may be reimbursed.
In Romania, insulin is provided free of charge to individuals with Type 1 diabetes through the national healthcare system . This means that if you are a registered patient with a valid prescription, you can obtain insulin at no cost from pharmacies.
In Germany my wife with T1 Diabetes pays 5€ biweekly for her Freestyle Libre sensors, and 10€ per box of Insulin, she needs about 1.5 boxes every 3 months.
In theory she has to pay another 10-20€ per quarter for cathethers for her insulin pump, but the supplier does not charge this fee.
My brother in law has type 1 diabetes. We live in Croatia. His insuline is covered and test strips are also covered. If he runs out of test stips, he can buy them and they are not expensive (about 16 euros/50 strips). He recently started to use glucose sensors for monitoring, also covered. He regularly (2-3 times a year) goes to hospital to make all sorts of tests so he and the doctors can monitor the impact of the disease on his body. That is also covered. Some of these things might not be covered in full if he didn’t pay supplemental health insurance, but that costs about 10 euros/month so it is not a big expense and pretty much everybody has that. Basic health insurance in Croatia is payed monthly directly from our brutto salary (16,5%).
In the UK, if you have one of a number of chronic conditions including diabetes all your medical prescriptions are free.
If you pay for prescriptions, you can buy a prepayment certificate which covers all your prescriptions.This costs £32.05 for 3 months or £114.50 for 12 months
Most people in the UK get free prescriptions though based on age, income, geography or other exemptions
A good friend of min has T1 Diabetes. She goes on regular checkups a couple of times a year and get the insuline and equipments (she has a kind of sensor on her body that notifies her via an app when blood sugar level is starting to get to low/high) that she needs without a problem.
In Sweden you have to pay 2900kr (around 290$ / 265€) out of your own pocket for medecine or doctors visits before the governments high-cost protection kicks in (so after that you don’t have to pay for medecine or doctors visits). The protection is valid for a year once it kicks in.
I don’t have diabetes, but other chronic diseases. Doctor visits are free, medications have a co-pay of 5-10€ per prescription and it’s 10€/day in the hospital (limited to 280€/year). The co-pays in general are limited to 1% of your yearly income if you’re chronically ill, for other people it’s 2%.
No system is perfect of course, but in general I’m pretty happy with ours.
I am really sorry about your girlfriend, it makes me so sad they way you wrote it “pay just to live”
I live in Portugal and my boss suffer from sleep apnea, which I am not sure can be considerer a chronic disease… I can tell you that the Cpap machine was given to him 100% free of charge, and he is the owner of the machine, it is not borrowed by the government.
About the sleep studies I dont remember if he had to pay something, he told me the whole story in a coffe break at the office, if he paid something I can assure you it was an small co-pay.
The US healthcare system is completely screwing over their citizens, no way around it. In Finland you pay something like 20-40 € for a public healthcare doctor’s visit and most of the prescription medicines are heavily subsidized by the government.
For each calendar year you pay the full price of medicines until you’ve spent a total of 70 €. Then you get the reimbursement depending on which drugs you need for 40%, 65% or 100% of the price. When you’ve spent 633 € on medicines during the calendar year, you get all the rest for the nominal price of 2.5 € for each package of reimbursable medicine you buy during the remainder of the year.
Don’t you have insurance? I’m in Sweden. Insulin and a pump, needles etc is completely free if you have T1 diabetes because it’s seen as something you can’t live without. To be hospitalized is 130 SEK ($13,5) a night. An ambulance ride is 150 SEK ($15,6)
If you have epilepsy for example the cap on medication is 2900 SEK/year ($301/year) and the cap on doctors visits are 1450 SEK/year ($150/year) You never pay more than that.
I’m a dual citizen of Sweden and USA, I’ve had type 1 diabetes since I was 13.
I moved to NYC for university and ended up staying for 12 years. I loved my life there But I struggled through the awful tangle and cost of getting healthcare. Because of this I moved to Sweden, it was heartbreaking to leave my life behind, but I had to.
In USA It was so important for me to have a full-time job so I could be on their health insurance plan – full price private health insurance was around $700-$850/month, through my work plan it was around $350/month. I also remember filling out weird multiple-choice forms about you racial background, gender and health needs when applying for jobs etc – always felt like they were screening us expensive “pre-existing condition” people. In total I probably spent $850-$1100/month for my healthcare.
In Sweden medicatjon for type 1 diabetes is free, as well as for other chronic illnesses. There’s a yearly deductible for medicine and a deductible for doctor’s visits, ca $140 each, for things like antibiotics. Dr visits are $40ish until you hit the deductible. The healthcare I get for diabetes is great – I see a doctor or a nurse every 4-6 months, with a doctors note I get discount on gym memberships.
I remember crying when I picked up insulin in Sweden for the first time after I moved back. My 1st thought was “I can’t believe I’m so lucky to get this for fee”. 2nd thought was “holy sh*t this box of 5 insulin pens is $800~ full-price in USA should I sell this on Craigslist next time I’m in USA”
In Ireland, Type 1 Diabetes supplies are covered under the Long Term Ilness [LTI] scheme – the logic is that giving you the tools to manage a chronic condition well is cheaper long-term then you struggling to manage it and ending up in the hospital Emergency Department.
If you are in the public system, checkups/clinic visits are free. Yearly retinal screening for Diabetic Retinopothy is also covered.
Insulin pens, vials, syringes, test strips, blood pressure medication, etc. etc. is all covered for free.
CGMs and Insulin Pumps require individual approval – your doctor/clinic need to show that you are maintain good control, attending your checkups, etc.
In Denmark, all hospital stays, equipment, etc. related to T1 are free (that is, tax paid).
You pay for medicine, but there is a gradually increasing subsidy.
From about $700 a year you get 100% subsidy, so free.
In the Netherlands:
Pay 140 euros a month for the basic insurance.
Pay 385 a year deductable.
Get the test device, test strips, injectors and insulin for free out of basic insurance.
Blood tests come out of your deductable. But free if you already used up your deductable.
Visiting special diabetes nurse is free out of basic insurance, I think.
If you have long term disease like diabetes in France any medical related to that (eye, liver, blood tests…) is taken in charge 100% by the social security system. Doctor visits, exams, medication.
Ireland here, everything free included anything else like blood pressure or cholesterol meds that can be linked to having diabetes.
I opt to see a private consultant and all meds & supplies are still free. Consultant only costs €150 per visit anyway and I get half reimbursed from my health insurance.
I also have another medical issue – if I went through the public health system all would be free, but I would have been waiting about a few months for my first MRI to get into the system so I use private clinics. As above consultant visits are half reimbursed by my health insurance, MRI and surgical procedures billed directly to health insurance, but the cost had I pay for an MRI would be around €500. (My annual health insurance cost is €1,600).
We live in Germany. My wife is type 1. She is on 2 types of insulin. Its 10 euro Co pay each for a box of novalog flex pens and a box of the 24hr insulin pens. She also has the sensor for her sugar and it’s 30 euro for 3 months of sensors. All doc and specialist visits are covered by insurance, same with any emergency visits.
In Ireland, all treatment related to diabetes is free of charge, including Dexcom continuous glucose monitors.
UK. All medication, doctors and hospital visits are free.
The only fault I have with this system is it can be quite slow to adopt new technologies. All T1s are entitled to CGMs now, although that’s pretty recent and pumps are only offered to those who meet certain criteria. My diabetes doctor is trying to make the case for me to get a pump and doesn’t have much hope, but seems to think they’ll be offered to all T1s within the next few years, much like CGMs.
I’d rather that than be extorted in the way diabetics are in the US. There are some horror stories on r/diabetes_t1.
Iit’s not a money problem at all. But stuff still happens.
my classmate recently died just a month before his wedding. The stress caused his sugar levels to go wild and he was too busy with the wedding and their kid for the (free) follow up. and one day he feels so bad that his fiancé drives him to the doctor, who takes a look at his blood (instant bloodwork at the general practitioner are the norm) and calls an ambulance. He is put in ICU, but falls into a coma and dies the same day. There was a go-fund-me, but not for the medical bill (0€). unfortunately as they weren’t married yet, the fiancé won’t get a widows pension, which makes it harder for her to raise the kid as a now single mom. there is still social welfare, but the pension would make for a more comfortable life.
Aside from this tragic news. no news is what you get about diabetes T1. Because here they are treated like people with high colesterol or on heart meds: just get your meds from your doc or apothecary for free at a scheduled interval and do your scheduled check ups and call if weird stuff happens so they can schedule something tomorrow.
Hi! It’s free. I haven’t heard of anyone paying for it, or being in debt because of it. Public healthcare deals with all of it. We do have private healthcare systems available if you prefer that, it’s usually quicker, but based on the T1 diabetics I know they do fine with the public system.
My dad has Type 1 diabetes, and over the years I have witnessed — though thankfully not too many — episodes of hypoglycemia that required us to call 112, as we couldn’t convince him to take sugar voluntarily. It never cost him a cent. These incidents were more frequent before he had the sensor that constantly monitors his blood sugar levels, especially at night. Nowadays, with the sensor alerting him when his blood sugar drops below a certain threshold, such episodes happen much less often.
As for the insulin, sensors, needles, regular diabetologist visits, and everything else that comes with the condition — it’s all covered by national health insurance. He gets regular prescriptions for these supplies, so he doesn’t pay anything out of pocket.
We have a mandatory €385 per annum deductible, but after that amount, everything should be covered. But of course we are paying €150/month on health care premiums, though the lower your income, the more you get reimbursed by the government. My friend has T1 and he got an insulin pump for free and all consultations with the specialists are also free.
Here in Sweden you pay up to a certain amount (right now the amount translates to about 290 USD) then you don’t pay any more for your medications that year. All insulin equipment is free.
I only need metformin and atorvastatin for T2, I pay maybe 10 bucks a month for both, if even that.