Universal diabetes drug coverage could be 'lifechanging': doctor

Raman Kumar says a feder‐ al plan to cover diabetes medications and supplies would be "phenomenal" because she'll finally stop worrying about how to pay for her care.

"It's so expensive," she said of replacing a $100 sen‐ sor for her continuous glu‐ cose monitor every 10 days.

"My extended health cov‐ erage through my husband's work doesn't even cover that," Kumar said. "Last month I skipped half the month because you just don't want to go and spend that money. It's $100 every time you walk into a pharma‐ cy."

Kumar has Type 1.5 dia‐ betes, due to symptoms as‐ sociated with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

"I take Metformin, which is prescribed for Type 2 dia‐ betes, and insulin before I go to bed, which is typically pre‐ scribed for Type 1," she said from Surrey, B.C.

She's concerned that her symptoms, including dizzi‐ ness, will worsen if she does‐ n't maintain her unaffordable care.

On Thursday, federal Health Minister Mark Holland tabled a bill that paves the way for a universal drug plan, starting with coverage for birth control and diabetes drugs and supplies.

The pharmacare deal is a key component of the sup‐ ply-and-confidence deal be‐ tween the governing Liberals and the NDP. Alberta and Quebec have said they want to opt out in favour of spend‐ ing federal money on their own plans.

Holland did not provide details about coverage for supplies but told a news con‐ ference in Ottawa that dia‐ betes patients have enough to worry about besides the cost of their care and that some resort to reusing sy‐ ringes, which he said is "not right."

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"What happens to that person who doesn't take their medication? They wind up, potentially, with an am‐ putation, with a stroke, with a heart attack. They walk out, potentially, with potential kidney problems," he said.

Doctors and advocacy groups hailed the plan as they wait for specifics on cov‐ erage in Canada, which is alone among countries with a universal health-care sys‐ tem in not including medica‐ tions.

'You skimp and you skip or you just don't afford them'

Dr. Tom Elliott, medical di‐ rector of a diabetes clinic in

Vancouver, said one of his patients was hospitalized last year because he could not af‐ ford to buy medication after paying for groceries.

"Between putting food on the table and taking his med‐ ications he chose food on the table. And the next thing you know he's in hospital, almost dying from severe diabetes complications," he said.

The endocrinologist said that while British Columbia has the country's best cover‐ age for low-income patients, many do not meet the de‐ ductible criteria so they skip their drugs or don't take them at all.

"So what do you do? You skimp and you skip or you just don't afford them at all. It's terrible."

Elliott said that along with insulin and other drugs, con‐ tinuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps are essen‐ tial and that coverage for these items would make a life-saving difference to pa‐ tients who will have "fair and just treatment."

"I'm optimistic that they're covered. And if they're not then really it's despair and we're back at square one. You have to cover them. They're life-changing, differ‐ ence-making, game-changing devices."

Higher diabetes dence rate in Canada

Diabetes Canada called the plan a "monumental step" that would enhance the well-being of more than four million people living with dia‐ betes, adding it will continue inci‐ advocating for full and timely access to medications and devices.

Jessica Diniz, president of the Juvenile Diabetes Re‐ search Foundation, said every province has limita‐ tions on coverage and that the average out-of-pocket cost for Type 1 diabetes pa‐ tients is about $18,000 a year.

While continuous glucose monitors help avoid compli‐ cations, Diniz said a price tag of between $3,000 and $4,000 means many people must do without them, and the replacement cost of sen‐ sors every few days is anoth‐ er deterrent.

Diniz, whose group advo‐ cates for those with Type 1 diabetes, said researchers are trying to determine why Canada has a higher inci‐ dence rate of that condition than some other countries.

"Northern Hemisphere countries seem to have high‐ er rates. We're looking at Vi‐ tamin D, the food we eat. The rate of diagnosis is growing at four per cent a year com‐ pared to three per cent in the U.S. That doesn't sound big but it adds up and it's signifi‐ cant," said Diniz, adding that the average age for diagnosis in children is 10.

"But I've met families whose children were 18 mon‐ ths or two years old. It's the whole family that's going through this."

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