Diabetics in Canada in need of a national drug plan to regulate the expense of treatment

• Canada must implement a national catastrophic drug plan to help diabetics, whose out-of-pocket expenses for medicines and supplies vary widely across the country and jeopardize their ability to control the potentially life-threatening disease, says a report by the Canadian Diabetes Association.
• "People with diabetes in Canada have difficulty accessing and affording the diabetes medications, devices and supplies they need to manage their disease and reduce their risk of very costly health complications," Dr. Karen Philp, the group's national director of public policy and government relations, said today in releasing the report.
• "There are startling variations in drug plan coverage and financial support for Canadians living with diabetes," Philp told a Toronto news conference.
• Starting this week, volunteers across the country will personally contact candidates in every riding to ascertain their support for such an insurance program.
• Barb Marche of Red Brook, N.L., said she and her husband must dip into their wallets for the $450 needed each month to buy supplies for treating their eight-year-old son Liam, who was diagnosed with insulin-dependent Type 1 diabetes when he was two.
• "His pump and pump supplies are not covered under our insurance, so that adds up," Marche said.
• If his blood sugar runs too high, you add ketone strips to that and they're $3 per strip.
• With no private insurance for supplies and their home province providing zero coverage, the family also had to come up with $6,000 for Liam's computerized insulin pump, which provides automatic, incremental doses through his arm to avoid repeated injections and to tightly control glucose levels.
• At last year's First Ministers meeting, Ottawa, the provinces and territories agreed to establish a national pharmaceutical strategy, which would include a catastrophic drug plan.