Type 1 diabetics 'overlooked' in health reform

By HANNAH STONE
Canberra’s Type 1 diabetes community says it will get no benefit from the Rudd government’s funding of general practices for diabetes patients.
“We cost 50% of the total financial cost of diabetes but we don’t get anything out of this announcement,” Olivia Macdonald, Type 1 diabetic and advocate, said.
Almost one per cent of Canberrans have Type 1 diabetes, according to data from Diabetes Australia and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The $436 million diabetes funding scheme starts in 2012, and is part of the Rudd government’s health reform roll-out. General practices will be paid $1200 a year for every diabetes patient voluntarily enrolled for treatment with them. Practices that improve their patients’ overall health, especially by lowering hospitalisation rates, will get bonuses of around $10,800 each year.
Ms Macdonald said the scheme was misguided, as Type 2 diabetics would be better served by allied health professionals and education programs, and Type 1s needed funding for personal medical equipment.
“A proportion of that [funding] could go to hardware products that help Type 1’s self-manage and prevent illness,” she said. “It’s a cheap investment over the long haul, with more bang for their buck, and helps keep us out of hospital.
“Wouldn’t you think they’d want that?”
Parliamentary Secretary for Health Mark Butler spoke about the scheme at a Consumers Health Forum of Australia information session yesterday (29 April 2010).
“It is, we think, a good first-go at coordinating delivery of primary health care,” he said. “We hope to build on this framework later.”
“We’re focussing on diabetes Type 2 because of the growth trajectory,” he said. “If people do develop Type 2 diabetes, we want to treat them earlier than we are in the current health system.”
The ACT opposition spokesperson for health, Jeremy Hanson, said all forms of diabetes should be invested in “but if there is a disease that can be prevented, like Type 2 diabetes, we need to make every effort to do so”.
Ms Macdonald said it was understandable that the Rudd government focussed on Type 2 diabetes.
“It’s growing rapidly, they’re worried they’ll be crushed under the weight of it,” she said.
“And I wouldn’t like to pour vitriol on Type 2s – they do have a difficult time too.
“My beef is the government’s mismanagement of the money, and Type 1s being put in a model that doesn’t suit them.”
The Diabetes Australia website describes type 1 diabetes is an incurable auto-immune disease which is fatal without daily lifelong insulin injections (of up to six each day).
Type 1 Diabetes Information Group (DIG): T1DIG4U@gmail.com Diabetes ACT