Do you people get all your diabetes stuff for nothing?

TheBigNewt

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,167
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Insulins, syringes, needles, test strips, pumps, CGMs? Because I sure don't, and I have medical insurance, which I couldn't even buy until I went to work for the government. I pay for my own test strips (which are only about 15 cents online). A 10 ml bottle of Lantus costs me $120, and a box of 5 Novorapid pens costs me $230.
 

Jamesuk9

Well-Known Member
Messages
504
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Only in America!

God bless the NHS, all prescription medication is free at point of use to anyone living in Wales or Scotland and free to anyone on low income in England and £29.10 every 3 months for those in England who are deemed able to afford to pay.
 

TheBigNewt

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,167
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
"Do you people..." That's a bit rude!
Sorry, it's not considered insulting language here. So how much in taxes do they take out for health insurance? Here they take out 6% of your pay check for Social Security, and 4% for Medicare, both are programs for seniors. And the employer has to match that 10%. I'm guessing NSH eats up some serious tax dollars over there because it includes everybody, and everybody (kids) doesn't work.
 
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Bullies, Liars, Trolls and dishonest cruel people
Insulins, syringes, needles, test strips, pumps, CGMs? Because I sure don't, and I have medical insurance, which I couldn't even buy until I went to work for the government. I pay for my own test strips (which are only about 15 cents online). A 10 ml bottle of Lantus costs me $120, and a box of 5 Novorapid pens costs me $230.

Maybe your new president could come up trumps with a new medical system, or try Mexico it's cheaper, about half the price of the USA.
 
S

serenity648

Guest
I know my friend, with a T1 husband and two T1 adult sons, all on pumps, have to mainly self fund their pump stuff. I dont know the details. And they are all tax payers too.
 
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Messages
18,448
Type of diabetes
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Bullies, Liars, Trolls and dishonest cruel people
Sorry, it's not considered insulting language here. So how much in taxes do they take out for health insurance? Here they take out 6% of your pay check for Social Security, and 4% for Medicare, both are programs for seniors. And the employer has to match that 10%. I'm guessing NSH eats up some serious tax dollars over there because it includes everybody, and everybody (kids) doesn't work.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/10078062/why-do-we-pay-national-insurance
 
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Johnjoe13

Well-Known Member
Messages
398
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Only in America!

God bless the NHS, all prescription medication is free at point of use to anyone living in Wales or Scotland and free to anyone on low income in England and £29.10 every 3 months for those in England who are deemed able to afford to pay.


I'm in England and do not pay for anything on prescription since I was put on Metformin, the nurse that put me on it told me that once you are medicated for T2 you can receive a medical exemption certificate. The only thing they do not provide on prescription is a meter and test strips which I have to buy myself. To be honest I'll quite happily pop a small amount of metformin as long as I can, before this I had to pay for the statin and two types of other medication i'm on so it's proved a money saver for me
 

TheBigNewt

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,167
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin

covknit

Well-Known Member
Messages
467
Type of diabetes
Prefer not to say
Treatment type
Other
Sorry, it's not considered insulting language here. So how much in taxes do they take out for health insurance? Here they take out 6% of your pay check for Social Security, and 4% for Medicare, both are programs for seniors. And the employer has to match that 10%. I'm guessing NSH eats up some serious tax dollars over there because it includes everybody, and everybody (kids) doesn't work.
and how much tax do you pay? We have to pay tax, Ni, pension contributions etc , Employees have it deducted from our wages. The self employed pay less NI but are entotled to fewer benefits if thing go pear shaped. On top of that we pay VAT of 20% on most items. The main exemt item is basic foodstuffs. Then we have duties, levies, duties on top. Plus we have far fewer allowable deductions than in the US http://www.uktaxcalculators.co.uk/
 

Jordi77

Well-Known Member
Messages
681
Type of diabetes
Type 2
I'm on insulin and T2 and I get a exception cetificate and I get everything free except the meter but I get the test strips free and everything else and the test strips are £26 for 50 and I get them for free and I don't get no arguments from the doctors or nurses as they are happy to send the prescription for them to the chemist and I just pick it up and go home and I place a order every two to three weeks for them
 
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TheBigNewt

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,167
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
and how much tax do you pay? We have to pay tax, Ni, pension contributions etc , Employees have it deducted from our wages. The self employed pay less NI but are entotled to fewer benefits if thing go pear shaped. On top of that we pay VAT of 20% on most items. The main exemt item is basic foodstuffs. Then we have duties, levies, duties on top. Plus we have far fewer allowable deductions than in the US http://www.uktaxcalculators.co.uk/
Like I said we get 10% taken out of our pay for combined Social Security (a pension of sorts) and Medicare (senior healthcare age 65). As for your VAT our total sales tax is about 8.5% in most states (excludes food like you). The Social Security tax stops on income over about $100,000. The Medicare tax has no cap.
 

TheBigNewt

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,167
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Maybe your new president could come up trumps with a new medical system, or try Mexico it's cheaper, about half the price of the USA.
Yes medical care is ridiculously expensive here compared to other nations. And Obamacare did nothing to change that. I'm all for having "Medicare for all". Medicare limits costs better than private insurance companies. We'd probably only have to pay another 2% tax on income to have that. Just a guess.
 

covknit

Well-Known Member
Messages
467
Type of diabetes
Prefer not to say
Treatment type
Other
Like I said we get 10% taken out of our pay for combined Social Security (a pension of sorts) and Medicare (senior healthcare age 65). As for your VAT our total sales tax is about 8.5% in most states (excludes food like you). The Social Security tax stops on income over about $100,000. The Medicare tax has no cap.
compared to our 20% income tax (40% above £42,000ish) plus 12% National insurance plus prescription charges plus optional private medical plus VAT 20%. Prescription charge rate only applies to items the GP is willing to write a prescription for. A lot of us have to buy our own meters and ancilliaries.
 
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AndBreathe

Master
Retired Moderator
Messages
11,320
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Insulins, syringes, needles, test strips, pumps, CGMs? Because I sure don't, and I have medical insurance, which I couldn't even buy until I went to work for the government. I pay for my own test strips (which are only about 15 cents online). A 10 ml bottle of Lantus costs me $120, and a box of 5 Novorapid pens costs me $230.

People in England, diagnosed as diabetic, who take medication for their Diabetes are entitled to apply for a prescription charge exemption form. Anyone, like myself, who was diagnosed with diabetes, but has never taken medication, is not entitled to a prescription charge exemption.

People entitled to an exemption are only exempt from paying for items on their NHS prescription, so not necessarily all the items you list. Most T2s are not prescribed tests trips, for example, and few T1s have CGM provided on prescription.
 
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Diakat

Expert
Retired Moderator
Messages
5,591
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
The smell of cigars
And there are many who seem to have no healthcare. American (and Canadian) patients have been on here saying they cannot afford insulin.

The NHS is far from perfect but mostly comes through.
 

Winnie53

BANNED
Messages
2,374
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
My experience with US health care is that for the "underemployed", it's expensive. Now in my mid-50's, I work 20 hours a week so have to buy my health insurance at a cost of $550/month. In addition, not much is covered until I reach my $6,000/year deductible. Don't know what my prescription benefit is (because I don't take any medications). I pay for my own glucose test strips, which cost me 18 cents each. My goal is to eventually find a full-time job with benefits, but that's at least a year or two away.

Once I reach age 65, my health care will be much less. Counting down the years... :)
 

CathP

Well-Known Member
Messages
194
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
The NHS have just started funding my 6 year old daughters dexcom, after a year of self-funding. The NHS has its faults, but on the whole it's amazing.
 

covknit

Well-Known Member
Messages
467
Type of diabetes
Prefer not to say
Treatment type
Other
My experience with US health care is that for the "underemployed", it's expensive. Now in my mid-50's, I work 20 hours a week so have to buy my health insurance at a cost of $550/month. In addition, not much is covered until I reach my $6,000/year deductible. Don't know what my prescription benefit is (because I don't take any medications). I pay for my own glucose test strips, which cost me 18 cents each. My goal is to eventually find a full-time job with benefits, but that's at least a year or two away.

Once I reach age 65, my health care will be much less. Counting down the years... :)
The fact that everyone whose earnings exceed a certain figure contribute to a shared pot is the reason why the NHS was so effective. When we need medical help the NHS is there and when we are earning we pay our share into into the pot. When my American sister in law died her family had to hand in the keys of the house to satisfy the medical bills.
 
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TheBigNewt

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,167
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
And there are many who seem to have no healthcare. American (and Canadian) patients have been on here saying they cannot afford insulin.

The NHS is far from perfect but mostly comes through.
Yeah I know. I couldn't get medical insurance because I was self employed and have diabetes. I bought a catastrophic plan with a $20,000 deductible for $150/month. So I paid full boat for insulin. For awhile I could get it half price from Canada though which was nice because I just write my own prescriptions. Obama made the Canada thing illegal. I figure I saved $100,000 during the time I was self employed not buying expensive health insurance (which I didn't ever need). And the money I put aside for the deductible went up by 50%!
 
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