Struggling With Diabetes in a Depressed Economy: More than 25,000 diabetic patients are being tracked in a Greater Cleveland study in Ohio. This is a rather large undertaking on a local level to track diabetes and accompanying managed care.
The report, started in 2007, suggests that patients are doing a better job overall when it comes to personally managing their blood glucose.
Dr. Randall Cebul, director of Better Health Greater Cleveland (BHGC) told Cleveland.com his collective is, “Still crunching numbers, but preliminary estimates are around $200 million a year in largely preventable local hospital costs.” This equals around $8,000 per diabetic patient per year on preventable costs.
The goal of BHGC is to help patients manage their care in an effort to minimize costs while improving overall health. That being said, the economy has not done much to allow this dream to come true. Ohio has been hit in the same way any other state has been. BHGC indicates there is a 19% unemployment rate among the diabetic patients they track and this is causing patients to forego self-management in favor of meeting other expenses.
Cebul indicated, “People either scrimp on care — they don’t go to visits because they can’t make [payments] — or they scrimp on medicines and supplies. They won’t be checking their sugar, that’s all there is to it.”
To prove the point Cleveland.com visited with Vivian Scott, a 47 year-old diabetic who said, “Testing strips run anywhere from $50 to $150 a month. Those are not covered, they are out of pocket. Most of the time I don’t do my sugar because I can’t afford it. The electric bill or food on the table is more important.”
Scott isn’t alone. Many diabetic couples are sharing pills hoping it will provide the help they need.
Subsidized care programs are in place to help when they can, but as the instance of diabetes increases it becomes more difficult to bear the burden of care.
What seems troubling to many experts is the economy may impact diabetes on more than one front. Certainly what you’ve already read is a microcosm of diabetes management in cities across the US, but the second impact is the stress coping with finances often has on individuals who do not currently have diabetes. This stress may result in future instances of diabetes among the general public.
We see an immediate impact due to the fact that individuals who have diabetes are struggling with how to pay for their care, but we are also seeing individuals eating foods that are highly process while the individual lingers over their own personal finances. These conditions may be contributing factors to onset diabetes.
Medical experts indicate that it is only when diabetes is tightly controlled that long-term expenses associated with diabetes care can be minimized. If individuals cannot test due to financial restraints they are less likely to avoid medical conditions that may require hospitalization and other medical intervention in the future.
From a practical standpoint it is easy to see how individuals look at medical expenses of a hundred dollars or more as being unreasonable when they are trying to simply pay for the other necessities of life. Groups like Better Health Greater Cleveland and others become instrumental in helping provide education and subsidized care to diabetic patients.
This may be a difficult time for diabetics to cope with the management of their disease, but there are organizations extending hope, and some diabetics who are struggling with their finances are finding help.
