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Anyone know the answer on "topping up"?

H

hanadr

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I was just skip reading the test strips thread again when a thought fluttered by( yes Eddie! a thought)
there's been some publicity lately about cancer patients who fund their own medication ( at HUGE cost), being made to pay for ALL their care, as "Topping up" isn't allowed.
How do diabetics, funding test strips fit in to this ruling?
 
Hi Eddie
I didn't extrapolate far. Since I've cut my use of metformin and cut out gliclazide altogether and hardly ever use one of my halved Starlix. I can't see how they justify not letting me have 2 freestyle strips per day, which is all I need.At Abbott's price of £14.33 per 50, I make that under 6p per day. And I suspect that the NHS would pay less.
 
I did a bit of a search( on private prescription medicine costs) and found that I'm saving about 7p per day, by not using gliclazide and about £1.05 a day on not using much Starlix plus about 1/2 p per day on Metformin. that's all down to lower carbs. 2 Teststrips per day would cost about 6p . That's not the prices the NHS pays. Those I couldn't find. When I eventually get to meet the Diabetes Educator, I shall take these numbers with me. As to staying healthy. I've had one mild cold this summer and chipped my ankle ( that could happen to anyone whose mother accidentaly pushes them down an escalator, but it had to be my mother). Ao I cost nothing on medicines, apart from my regular ones, and a single X-ray. thatt's much less than my so-called healthy 29 year-old daughter, who's had knee surgery and a caesarian delivery of a baby.
 

I was quoted something like 1/3 the OTC price as the test strip cost to the NHS.

I thoroughly agree, there has been talk of halving my olmesartan due to BP improvements, and I'm taking 1/6 my previous dose of venlafaxine since getting my BG under control. Add in what we save in not having complications to the reduced drug bills and test strips become a no-brainer in cost-effectiveness terms.

Hell, if even Kaiser Permanente think they are cost effective then they MUST be

I have a copy of the Kaiser study on pdf but it no longer seems to be available for free

http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=k ... tnG=Search
 
I think this is one of the loopholes people have pointed out to NICE as part of the top up debate. Meters have never been free as of right (only if you're lucky and your DSN or meter manufacturer gives you one) but it has never been seriously proposed that Type 1s don't need test strips. When meters became common the strips went on prescription for type 1s, so if topups aren't allowed how come GPs prescribe strips for a meter we shouldn't have? Before about 1988 we also had to pay for disposable syringes/needles and we generally buy the lucozade/glucose tabs to treat overdoses of our prescribed insulin.
 
I think my post got lost between me clicking submit and it appearing on the forum!
Anyway,

I think the big difference between cancer drugs and test strips is that one you can only legally get on prescription, the other anyone can buy without a prescription.
 
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