Little Danica, Diabetes and Dad.

​ At one time, little Danica, now aged five, and her family, struggled to pay the heavy cost of insulin and equipment that is a necessity for Type One diabetes patients.
In the last few months things have improved greatly for Danica and her family. First, a Miramichi company stepped forward to pay for an insulin pump. Then, the New Brunswick department of Social Development issued a Health Card which covered most costs. And just-tabled federal Pharmacare legislation, will cover still unspecified diabetes costs into the future.
Although things have improved for Danica recently, many Type One diabetes patients across Canada who do not have private health care coverage still face very high costs for insulin, needles, and other diabetes equipment such as continuous glucose monitors (CGM’s).

Danica, 5, in her emoji hat

​An adult friend of mine who is a Type One patient explains that CGM’s are those patches you see on the bicep of a diabetics, reading glucose levels. The CGM’s cost $200 and must be replaced every two weeks. An insulin pump referred to above, was once a large and bulky item. But diabetes is an area of significant high-tech innovation and change. The CGM’s can be linked to smart phones to add to the capability to monitor.

​I have never met Danica. As the writer of this Blog, Against the Flow, I met her dad, Ron Leavitt, about a year ago when my family was going through a different type of necessary procedure which most rural dwellers in Canada require occasionally, that is the pumping out of their septic tank.
 
Ron is a cheerful, boisterous, and big-hearted man. He used his company’s big truck to pump out our “tank.” It is a smelly business, but Ron made joy out of it, giving me several maintenance tips so we could avoid having septic troubles again soon.

He is the type of guy who addressed this writer as “Sir.”  As often as I would recommend that he did not have to call me “Sir,” he would come back a few minutes later, calling me “Sir” once again. I tolerated this, and overall, found him exceedingly grateful.

Ron and his wife, Maria, have been together for twenty-five busy years. Along with Danica, the “baby” of the family, they have five other children, aged 7, 9. 10, 17 and 19.

When Ron and I met, he shared with me the plight of his daughter, then just four years old. Why, he asked, would Medicare not cover even the cost of needles for his little daughter. He described how health professionals were compassionate about what the family was going through. “There were nurses with tears in their eyes, helping us,” he said.
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I told Ron at that time if ever had the opportunity to share Danica’s story I would do just that.
The Dad’s anguish and commitment stuck with me, and here we are today.
 
Those who live with one of the two main types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2 make up about four million Canadians or roughly 10 per cent of the entire Canadian population. Simplifying greatly, Type 2 diabetes can be regulated largely with diet and lifestyle changes. The more serious form of the disease, Type 1, affects about 400,000 Canadians.
 
My adult friend who is a Type 1 patient says those who do not have a private health care plan could be facing an annual cost for insulin, needles, and equipment of about $4,100 annually.
 
But Type 1 is associated with serious secondary effects, everything from eye disease to stroke and heart disease. Tragically, circulation problems can also lead to amputations. All this results in horrendous costs for Medicare, causing many doctors and scientists to argue that the cost of providing Pharmacare coverage for diabetes is far less than that for health system costs resulting from not providing that coverage.
 
Canada has been a world leader in this field. Afterall, it was Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best, a medical researcher, who discovered insulin in Toronto in 1921. When Danica grows up, she will no doubt remember those two names fondly.