The #FingerStickFree Movement
Diabetes is a major public health issue in South Africa. It is the leading cause of death of all people above 60 years of age, and impacts millions of lives.** Yet people with this chronic condition can live long and healthy lives. The key is effective diabetes management. That is where the #FingerStickFree movement came in - a campaign that put pressure on medical aids to make life-saving wearable devices that help track glucose levels available to those who want it. This is our story.
Hungry to be Heard
#FingerStickFree is a movement that saw South African people living with Diabetes come together to bring about a medical aid breakthrough. Abbott and Diabetes Advocacy South Africa came together with the hope of mobilising a movement to give voices to the masses living with Diabetes.
The Fork in the Road
Flash Glucose Monitoring devices can offer people living with diabetes real-time information about their glucose levels. This shows valuable data throughout the day and can help manage Diabetes more effectively. But medical aids only covered people living with Diabetes for the fingerstick test method. This is old-school, inconvenient, and doesn’t offer users the latest available life-saving technology.
Change is Sweet
Medical aid schemes knew about the advantages of flash glucose monitoring (FGM) and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices but were delaying making decisions on whether to pay for them. Public support was needed to help put on the pressure. Together with Sweet Life, thousands of people living with Diabetes raised their voices on public platforms and called out their medical aids by name. It worked! Discovery now offer certain CGM and FGM devices as part of their Prescribed Minimum Benefit.
More medical aids need to follow suit. So we’ll continue to advocate for all people living with Diabetes to ask their medical aids for #FingerStickFree sensory technology to made available to them.
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About #FingerStickFree
#FingerStickFree advocates for South African medical aids to include life-changing sensor technology (Continuous or Flash Glucose Monitoring) for people living with diabetes.
The #FingerStickFree Movement
Diabetes is a major public health issue in South Africa. It is the leading cause of death of all people above 60 years of age, and impacts millions of lives.* Yet people with this chronic condition can live long and healthy lives. The key is effective diabetes management. That’s where the #FingerStickFree movement comes in: a campaign that puts pressure on medical aids to make life-changing sensor technology available to people with diabetes. This is our story.
Hungry to be heard
#FingerStickFree is a movement that saw South African people living with diabetes come together to bring about a medical aid breakthrough. SA Diabetes Advocacy mobilised a movement to give voice to people living with diabetes who wanted access to sensor technology.
The fork in the road
Sensor technology can offer people living with diabetes real-time information about their glucose levels. This shows valuable data throughout the day and can help people to manage their diabetes more effectively. But medical aids only covered people living with diabetes for blood glucose monitoring using fingersticks. This is outdated, inconvenient, and offers very little data.
Change is sweet
Medical aid schemes knew about the advantages of flash glucose monitoring (FGM) and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices but were delaying making decisions on whether to pay for them. Public support was needed to help put on the pressure. Together with Sweet Life, thousands of people living with diabetes raised their voices on public platforms and called out their medical aids by name. It worked! Discovery now offers a CGM Benefit, as do certain other medical aids.
More medical aids need to follow suit. So we’ll continue to advocate for all people living with diabetes to ask their medical aids for #FingerStickFree sensor technology.
