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Do you people get all your diabetes stuff for nothing?

Mike D said:
Standard leave in the States is a LOT lower
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Yes it is. I'm a federal employee in a high pay job. But our registered nurses get the same number of Annual Leave days (26, one per pay period). The pay here isn't up to what it is in the private sector though which makes recruiting a bit of a challenge.
 
Jamesuk9 said:
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.
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Type 1 is considered a chronic condition and therefore prescriptions are free in England too, apply for an exempionform,
 
covknit said:
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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Seriously? I do not know of any one who buys their meter, nurses, GPs, hospital clinics all give them out, facebook is full of companies giving them away, they make the money on the strips which we get free on prescription. Since my original BM way back in the 1990's (remember those days waiting for 2 minutes) I have had numerous meters all free, most companies even give you free batteries, test solutions etc!
 
Paul Oak said:
Seriously? I do not know of any one who buys their meter, nurses, GPs, hospital clinics all give them out, facebook is full of companies giving them away, they make the money on the strips which we get free on prescription. Since my original BM way back in the 1990's (remember those days waiting for 2 minutes) I have had numerous meters all free, most companies even give you free batteries, test solutions etc!
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Hi Paul,

The general trend for free meters from companies & prescription strips on the NHS tends to be in "favour" of insulin dependant diabetics or those taking Gliclazide.

Other types on metformin or diet controlled are not afforded this privilege of scripted blood test equipment on the NHS..
 
Paul Oak said:
Seriously? I do not know of any one who buys their meter, nurses, GPs, hospital clinics all give them out, facebook is full of companies giving them away, they make the money on the strips which we get free on prescription. Since my original BM way back in the 1990's (remember those days waiting for 2 minutes) I have had numerous meters all free, most companies even give you free batteries, test solutions etc!
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I am type 2, no medication with other ailments so I and many,many other diabetics in the country would like, but cannot get testing equipment unless we self fund. So seriously I do not qualify. Lucky you...... maybe.
 
TheBigNewt said:
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.
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I do not know how you afford that! I was given my brand new (state of the art) glucose monitor, plus test strips, tablets and lancets, and will receive anything else I need on the NHS, although this might be different for mne ads I'm a student meaning I never have any money at all and because I live in Wales so my prescription is always free. Although as I am orginally from England and only live in Wales for university I'm dreading the day that I will have to pay for it all, if I go back there. There was one point when I was first getting my prescription sorted and tried to buy some only to be told that the testing strips alone would cost me £25, and I cried in the middle of the pharmacy as that is nearly two weeks food for me!
 
Tabbie17 said:
I do not know how you afford that! I was given my brand new (state of the art) glucose monitor, plus test strips, tablets and lancets, and will receive anything else I need on the NHS, although this might be different for mne ads I'm a student meaning I never have any money at all and because I live in Wales so my prescription is always free. Although as I am orginally from England and only live in Wales for university I'm dreading the day that I will have to pay for it all, if I go back there. There was one point when I was first getting my prescription sorted and tried to buy some only to be told that the testing strips alone would cost me £25, and I cried in the middle of the pharmacy as that is nearly two weeks food for me!
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Err! I live in England, as a type1 I don’t pay for a thing. Don’t know anyone here who does.
 
Tabbie17 said:
I do not know how you afford that! I was given my brand new (state of the art) glucose monitor, plus test strips, tablets and lancets, and will receive anything else I need on the NHS, although this might be different for mne ads I'm a student meaning I never have any money at all and because I live in Wales so my prescription is always free. Although as I am orginally from England and only live in Wales for university I'm dreading the day that I will have to pay for it all, if I go back there. There was one point when I was first getting my prescription sorted and tried to buy some only to be told that the testing strips alone would cost me £25, and I cried in the middle of the pharmacy as that is nearly two weeks food for me!
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I was diagnosed in Wales & moved to England about a year later. First thing I did on registering with a GP was get a medical exemption form signed off - if you are type 1 or if you are on medication for your diabetes then you don't have to pay prescription charges for anything. If your strips are on prescription then there is no charge.
 
clareb1970 said:
But here in England we have always paid for prescriptions, unless you qualify as exempt. It is quite unfair that everyone in the U.K. pays Tax and NI, yet only England pays for prescriptions. I would have though everybody should pay at least something, unless they have a chronic illness and require lots of regular meds. I could go on and also moan about English students having to cough up £9K a year for a degree course when Scottish students get their course for FREE!
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Sorry, off topic I know but I have to address this comment. The reason for this is that the Scottish Government decide how they should spend Scottish taxpayers money. And the Scottish electorate voted in a government that was elected on promises to keep prescriptions free and education free. It's totally fair, it's up to us how we spend our money. If England doesn't like it then the easy answer is to stop voting in the Tories.
Also as far as education goes there is a downside, my daughter is at one of the best universities at Scotland, for her course over 90% of English people who apply get an offer, whereas less than 30% of Scottish students who apply get an offer,as there is a limited cap on how many students the Scottish govt can pay for and universities cannot take on more Scottish students than this.
Nothing unfair about it - just different.
 
I would like to just say, my mum has crohns disease, before they worked that out she was left in a serious state and close to death many a time. They had to remortgage their home to pay for an operation... this was before nhs was introduced... my parents are still paying for that 30 years later!
She needed many more operations and had the nhs not been introduced... she would be dead because they wouldn't have been able to afford it.

People complain about money going to fund health care for people... but just imagine if you actually knew the people dying because they can't afford treatment!
My parents are now successful, they pay into the system, without which they wouldn't have been able to which completes the circle.

Nhs has meant my children are healthy and alive... care which I would not have been able to afford. I couldn't begin to imagine what would have happened had nhs not been available... I know I would have held 3 dead babies! My 3 little boys would be dead and buried, maybe me and my daughter too!
I know America is bashing England and the nhs... but it has saved thousands of lives.
P.s I buy my own testing equipment, that isn't free... only things they deem life sustaining are.
 
wh
busydiabeticmum said:
I would like to just say, my mum has crohns disease, before they worked that out she was left in a serious state and close to death many a time. They had to remortgage their home to pay for an operation... this was before nhs was introduced... my parents are still paying for that 30 years later!
She needed many more operations and had the nhs not been introduced... she would be dead because they wouldn't have been able to afford it.

People complain about money going to fund health care for people... but just imagine if you actually knew the people dying because they can't afford treatment!
My parents are now successful, they pay into the system, without which they wouldn't have been able to which completes the circle.

Nhs has meant my children are healthy and alive... care which I would not have been able to afford. I couldn't begin to imagine what would have happened had nhs not been available... I know I would have held 3 dead babies! My 3 little boys would be dead and buried, maybe me and my daughter too!
I know America is bashing England and the nhs... but it has saved thousands of lives.
P.s I buy my own testing equipment, that isn't free... only things they deem life sustaining are.
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why is your mum paying for an op she had no legal obligation to pay for if under 18 or 21 in the past a person cant enter into a contract. the nhs has been running since 1945.plus it should have been payed off years back.
 
your correct july 1948 so why did busys mum need to go private. claim it all back. with intrest.
 
paulus1 said:
wh

why is your mum paying for an op she had no legal obligation to pay for if under 18 or 21 in the past a person cant enter into a contract. the nhs has been running since 1945.plus it should have been payed off years back.
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My mum wasn't that age when diagnosed she was late 20s early 30s... She had volvulus and was left until day 3 waiting to see if it would resolve a step that nearly killed her. They had to fight to get the op and even had to get local MP involved. They aren't still paying the hospital they are paying for the remortgage which they did to pay for the op. It may be they had to go private because the hospital weren't wanting to do the op or because they didn't believe it to be necessary. They were accusing her of making it up and they only diagnosed her with crohns disease after this operation as they didn't believe anything was wrong with her until then... she eventually managed to change hospitals to specialist but only when they gave her 3 months left to live... that was 16 years ago.
She is now under an amazing hospital and on nhs though I am sure she wishes she didn't needed it.
We all went through a terrible time, she was under that hospital for 9 years and the damage done is irreparable... hind sight is an amazing thing.
But I would say it all depends on where you live, the doctors who dealt with mum had no idea how to treat her and had she gone to the hospital she's at now things would have been very different.
 
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Two words. Postcode Lottery.
I was given a free meter on first diagnosis 10 years ago and I have always had test strips on prescription.
However I have been fortunate in my GP surgeries.
I also only test now and then - that is I run a test campaign for a few weeks then don't test for a few months.
So I don't make massive demands on the surgery budget.
 
busydiabeticmum said:
My mum wasn't that age when diagnosed she was late 20s early 30s... She had volvulus and was left until day 3 waiting to see if it would resolve a step that nearly killed her. They had to fight to get the op and even had to get local MP involved. They aren't still paying the hospital they are paying for the remortgage which they did to pay for the op. It may be they had to go private because the hospital weren't wanting to do the op or because they didn't believe it to be necessary. They were accusing her of making it up and they only diagnosed her with crohns disease after this operation as they didn't believe anything was wrong with her until then... she eventually managed to change hospitals to specialist but only when they gave her 3 months left to live... that was 16 years ago.
She is now under an amazing hospital and on nhs though I am sure she wishes she didn't needed it.
We all went through a terrible time, she was under that hospital for 9 years and the damage done is irreparable... hind sight is an amazing thing.
But I would say it all depends on where you live, the doctors who dealt with mum had no idea how to treat her and had she gone to the hospital she's at now things would have been very different.
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they deserved suing. i know its too late now but thats terrible. hope your mums coping wife has quite bad ibs so i understand a little of what she was going through. to not be believed is very poor.
 
paulus1 said:
they deserved suing. i know its too late now but thats terrible. hope your mums coping wife has quite bad ibs so i understand a little of what she was going through. to not be believed is very poor.
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She may have done but doesn't like talking about it, she just gets on with things.
When I was told to get compensation (after they did a huge mess up with my son (same hospital)) I didn't want to... the hospital only gets a certain amount of money and if you are taking it from them they can't use it to improve. They are already struggling... however it is bad management.
If it has to close there are A LOT of people who suffer... mum suffered, yes, but had the operation not taken place she would have been dead. So they did do something which is better than nothing...
 
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