Do Copays Keep Diabetics From Staying Healthy?

With January 1st came plenty of monetary changes. Real estate taxes, state taxes, hotel taxes, cigarette taxes… and higher copays!

The medical insurance industry is no different than any other, it all revolves around the green stuff. Sad to say but very true. I wish that it was different and that we could all have affordable health insurance and premium medical care… but not gonna happen.

The problem with all of this is the fact that when you can not afford your copays and prescriptions and lancets and glucometer strips (which by the way are ridiculously expensive in my opinion) and other miscellaneous pharmacy type items, you will suffer. Diabetics will develop issues and complications due to this very fact.

“All research to this point has shown that individuals will not buy important medical services even if there’s a small financial barrier: $5 or even $2,” says senior author Mark Fendrick, M.D., of the U-M Medical School and School of Public Health. “This study showed that when you remove those barriers, people started using these high-value services significantly more. These results bolster the idea that health insurance benefits should be designed in ways that produce the most health per dollar spent.”

What can be done? How do we tangibley make it happen? Do you pay for all your diabetic supplies? Do you fill all your prescriptions, or have to pick and choose?

via University of Michigan Health System