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June 14, 2018
Announcements, Living With Diabetes, News & Media, Technology
Kudos to the BC NDP government for extending insulin pump coverage to every British Columbian living with diabetes requiring intensive insulin therapy (effectively all those with Type 1 diabetes and those with Type 2 diabetes taking two different kinds of insulin). On Tuesday the Minister of Health, Adrian Dix (who has Type 1 diabetes himself & is a BCDiabetes patient) announced this most welcome news. Until now only individuals with Type 1 diabetes under the age of 26 were eligible for coverage. There is additional good news in the fineprint – depending on which pump chosen there may be no Pharmacare deductible.
While insulin pumps are wonderful devices, having one doesn’t mean that blood sugar control will be optimal. Like everyone with Type 1 diabetes, pumpers still need to test their sugar frequently, make equally frequent adjustments to their insulin doses and modify their diet and exercise.
As readers of this blog will know, BCDiabetes has been lobbying the Ministry for more than 18 months on the SGLT2 inhibitor class of medication. Now that pumps have been approved BCDiabetes will begin in earnest a campaign to get coverage for the continuous glucose monitor class represented by the Dexcom G5 and Freestyle Libre.