Free access to glucose monitoring now available for thousands of people with type 1 diabetes

The Hon. Greg Hunt MP
Minister for Health
MEDIA RELEASE

1 March 2019

Free access to glucose monitoring devices will save pregnant women, children and more adults living with type 1

Free access to glucose monitoring devices will save pregnant women, children and more adults living with type 1 diabetes up to $7,000 a year from today, thanks to an investment by the Liberal National Government.

Funding over the next five years will assist 37,000 eligible Australians with type 1 diabetes through the expansion of the Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) Initiative.

Since April 2017, our Government as a result of a stronger economy has provided fully subsidised CGM products to children and young people, under 21 years of age, with type 1 diabetes.

This announcement was made late last year, and effective from today – eligibility for fully subsidised CGM products will be expanded to include:

• children and young people with conditions very similar to type 1 diabetes, such as cystic fibrosis related diabetes and neonatal diabetes, who require insulin;
• women with type 1 diabetes who are pregnant, actively planning pregnancy, or immediately post-pregnancy; and
• people with type 1 diabetes aged 21 years or older who have concessional status and have a high clinical need to access CGM products.

There are more than 9,700 young Australians under the age of 21 years currently benefitting from the CGM Initiative that was a key 2016 election commitment.

Increasing access to CGM products will help more people with type 1 diabetes mange this difficult disease better, as well as further support their families and carers.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that attacks a person’s ability to produce insulin. People with this condition must be able to monitor their glucose levels day and night for the entire life.

A continuous glucose monitoring device will continually monitor a person’s glucose levels and provides alerts if glucose levels become unsafe.

The devices will assist a person with diabetes with the management of their condition, reduce emergency visits to the hospital, and improve their quality of life now and into the future.

This investment builds on our recent announcement of $54.5 million for research into type 1 diabetes.

As part of that announcement the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Australia will receive $25 million to advance its Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network.

$25 million will also be dedicated to broader diabetes research under the $125 million MRFF Targeted Translation Research Accelerator initiative, to help progress early stage health and medical research discoveries to reach proof-of-concept and progress to clinical trials.

It’s only as a result of the Liberal National Government’s ability to deliver a stronger economy can we make these critical investments into CGM and type 1 diabetes research.

Eligibility criteria and additional information for the expanded CGM Initiative is available on the NDSS website at www.ndss.com.au
(ENDS)

Authorised by Greg Hunt MP, Liberal Party of Australia, Somerville, Victoria.