Original advocacy, public and political support for continuous glucose monitoring reimbursement

National Health Insurance covers 4 test strips daily for type one diabetics. Any CGMS or fGMS technology for continuous glucose monitoring is not covered.

We gathered diabetics, medical professionals, politicians and media under the Initiative “For life with less pain” and created huge public pressure for insurance - covered continuous glucose monitoring

Goals:  1. create positive public opinion , 2. create the pressure to CGMS/fGMS manufactures to come to Croatia 3. create the pressure on the National Health Insurance


The initiative started 1 year ago, it is still undergoing but we have strong reasons to believe in success

Background
Croatia has one National Health Insurance. Diabetics have rights which are not bad, but way behind western European countries. Typical example is CGMS & fGMS technology for continuous glucose monitoring which is not covered at all. There is also a problem with pharmaceutical companies, as they refer to Croatia as small and poor market and therefore not really important.

Aim
2 years ago we had a very successful public initiative for raising a number of test strips for glucose monitoring for diabetics younger than 18. We gathered medical professionals, patients and MEDIA, created huge public pressure to National Health Insurance and succeeded! 
We would like to repeat such success with our project for continuous monitoring. The aim of the project is for continuous monitoring to become available under insurance/reimbursement for all diabetics on insulin.

Method
Goals of the initiative are: creating a positive public opinion, creating the pressure to CGMS/fGMS manufactures to come to Croatia with their best products and apply to National Health Insurance and creating the pressure to the National Health Insurance. All three goals are crucial for success. 
We gathered diabetics, medical professionals, politicians and media under the Initiative “For life with less pain” (Croatian: “Za život s manje boli”). 

Diabetics connected through closed Facebook group, exchanging knowledge and ideas for Initiative. Many of them knew someone in the media, National Health Insurance, Ministry of Health or politics - and helped. “Everybody knows somebody, who knows somebody, who’s important”.
We organized a petition with more than 7.000 signatures.
Almost all active diabetic associations signed the Initiative. Zagreb Diabetic Association played a great role.

We asked and received official patronship from number of respectful and important politicians like Presidents of the Republic and Parliament.

We created great media coverage and provided the media with interesting stories about life with diabetes. 
We requested the meeting with Minister of Health. The meeting was held on highest level with all stakeholders; Ministry, Insurance, diabetics and medical experts.

We are working on Initiative with no financial background. We are using modern technology such as Facebook and Blog which enabled us to communicate effectively. Our goal is possible only with the unanimity and persistence of Croatian diabetics and only for objectively important issues.

Results and Conclusion
We achieved first two goals and after a year of work it is still too early for final results. We aim for continuous monitoring to be covered by National Health Insurance and we do not plan to give up.

Original advocacy, successful public and political support for continuous glucose monitoring reimbursement