I am type 1 diabetic. Fired Friday, no insurance, no more paycheck, and no unemployment…Where can I get help to treat my diabeties? My wife and I have no children at home. Can we get a medical card in the state of OH. My wife is disabled, but not thru the government. She gets a check from disability insurance? Does any know where we go ?
Where Can We Get Free Diabetic Supplies?
January 25th, 2010 § Tags: Diabetic, Free, Supplies Posted in Diabetes § § 4 comments
Where in Ohio are you located? I live in Ohio too, near the Akron / Cleveland area. You can go up to your county department of job and family services, and they should help you temporarily. Most counties have job centers where they’ll help you find a job of some sort. Failing that, contact your city and / or county health department. Some have programs to help people with certain conditions at a greatly reduced charge. A few years ago my husband had extremely high blood pressure, and for $5 per visit he got to see a doctor and they would send him home with medications. I believe some places have similar programs for diabetics.
Oh, and the reason why I say city or county health departments, the county I used to live in had both, and they operated independently of each other. So if you find your county has both, then call both.
Also, there are free clinics around. They aren’t well known because they don’t advertise much … it’s just not in their budget. I know Cleveland has one. Here’s their website:http://www.thefreeclinic.org/
And their website does talk about helping diabetics.
Also try calling 211 … if there are places in your area that can help they may be able to help you find them. But keep in mind that there may be help available that they don’t know about. So if you call them first don’t get discouraged.
Unfortunately, I know many areas of Ohio are rural and do not have any of those options I mentioned.
One last thing I can think of … is to email me your mailing address and tell me what you need. My daughter is a type 1 diabetic, and we have some extra supplies. No extra insulin (sorry!) but I may be able to help you with other things.
Good luck!
-edit-
I don’t know what I was thinking … DingDing is correct, some places will give you medications for free when you sign up. But it does take a while. I used to have a direct link to where you can apply at Lilly, if I can find it I will include it here.
-edit-http://www.lillycares.com/index.jsp
Start calling your state offices (look in the blue pages in the front of the phone book) to find out how to apply for medical coverage for the uninsured.
Sorry, but there isn’t much in the way of free stuff. You can visit the websites of the insulin manufacturers like Lilly, and they often have a hardship program you can apply for low-cost or free insulin. If you’re on a pump, go to http://www.ipump.com, they may have supplies for you. Meter strips are the toughest…use up what you have, then get one of the generic store brand meters because their strips are the cheapest, maybe before then you’ll have the state medical coverage thing settled.
Hi you can get a FREE METER here and other related diabetic infohttp://www.bestsaversclub.com/freemeter.…
try the county hospital.