I hope that there is more education about the existence of T1D and the fact that it is a chronic, autoimmune condition that is different from Type 2. When I first shared with friends and family about my child’s condition, the first reaction was: “how it is possible for a young child to have diabetes?” and whether we had given too much sugary foods. The public has only been widely educated about Type 2 Diabetes.
After my child’s diagnosis, I realised that we do not have access to the wider range of insulin, CGMs and pumps available in other parts of the world. We caught our child in the early stage of T1D. There is a treatment available outside Singapore that can help delay the progression but at an exorbitant cost. Catching it early in Singapore has no advantage at all as we helplessly watched him progressed to the final stage. There is always a fear that if ever a cure is available, it will take ages to come to Singapore as it is either too costly to be subsidized or we are being de-prioritized as the minority.
My child also has to endure the pain of the type of insulin prescribed, when there is a less painful choice out there – but again, not available here. We also learnt later that not all insulins are subsidised. As parents, we hope to bring less pain to our child and there is unfortunately a price to pay to do so.
It is the same situation with pump where the we only have 1 brand of tubed pump available here at a high cost. Tubeless pump is not available in Singapore.
As for CGM, we were hoping for a particular established brand to bring in a newer generation of its CGM but was told that HSA application takes a long time (1-2 years). However, another brand launched its first and 2nd generation CGM within a short span of time. We do welcome more brands but is confused by this disparity.
CGM subsidy is currently limited to one brand and for us, it is the same situation where we have to use a different brand and thus cannot enjoy this subsidy. I understand that the CGM subsidy comes with some T&C which can be stressful to parents. T1D is not an easy condition to manage in the first place. We always hope to achieve better A1C for our child and to have the subsidy taken away because you never perform is even sadder.
Most – if not all – of the insurance policies do not include CGM which is an expensive yet essential item for T1D.
We understand that T1D is a less common disease in Singapore but we hope that we can be given more attention on our needs.