‘Life-changing’ diabetes monitors not available, affordable to many with the devastating disease

‘It turned my life around but I can’t afford it,’ says a type 2 diabetic who will need to give up his Continuous Glucose Monitoring device.

John Davies' life changed when he started using a continuous glucose monitoring device.

New modelling has revealed the cost-effectiveness of continuous glucose monitoring devices for type 2 diabetics, despite the “life-changing” technology not being available for many who suffer from the devastating disease.

Diabetes Australia chief executive Justine Cain has called on the federal government to ­invest $200m in increased subsidies for continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps – which DA says could give 40,000 people access to the technology.

Without subsidisation, the CGM devices – small, wearable monitors that measure glucose levels throughout the day and are replacing daily finger-prick blood glucose checks worldwide – cost about $100 every two weeks.

It comes as a parliamentary inquiry last week revealed about 70 per cent of the adult population of some hard-hit communities had type 2 diabetes, which was causing widespread renal failure, amputations, blindness and early death, and the committee recommended the expansion of subsidised access to CGM devices and insulin pumps.

Diabetes Australia chief medical officer David Simmons.

Diabetes Australia Group chief executive Justine Cain.

The modelling, presented to the American Diabetes Association conference earlier this month, revealed CGM would cost the federal government $14,000 per person over a lifetime, and massively reduce eye, renal, neuropathy, and cardiovascular complications of the disease (by 17.7, 21.1, 8.7, and 2.5 per cent respectively).

One of the authors, and DA chief medical officer Professor David Simmons, said CGM was a cost-effective intervention to improve quality of life and reduce hospitalisations and the “horrible complications” of type 2 diabetes.

“(CGM) reduces quite lot of hospital-type events, such as dialysis, and other things by improving glucose levels and monitoring. It reduces costs of terrible complications, which are quite horrible … It not only improves quality of life but the length of life as well,” he said.

“As an advocate for people with diabetes, and someone looking at cost-effectiveness and hospital workloads, I think it is a win-win-win really.”

Ms Cain said technologies such as CGM devices and insulin pumps were too expensive for many despite the “significant improvements in quality of life”.

DA’s $200m proposal to the government “prioritises those with greatest need”. This includes insulin pumps for young people and Indigenous Australians with type 1 diabetes, and CGM devices for those with type 2 diabetes who are pregnant, Indigenous Australians, and those under the age of 21 or who require multiple daily injections of insulin.

“Investing in diabetes technologies will improve both health and economic outcomes,” Ms Cain said. “Research shows that these devices are game-changing in terms of managing blood glucose levels and improving time-in-range, which ultimately reduces diabetes complications and hospitalisations.

“If we can reduce the number of people living with diabetes who develop complications like stroke, heart attack, blindness and kidney disease – we could reduce the economic burden on our health system by billions of dollars each year,” she said.

John Davies, a 55-year-old heavy vehicle equipment operator, has managed type 2 diabetes for about nine years, and started using CGM technology a few months ago through a trial in Sydney. He now takes a third less insulin and says it has “turned my life around”.