#FingerstickFree: Bringing South African Diabetics Together for a Medical Aid Breakthrough
We used public activism combined with precision advocacy to help Sweet Life secure a big win for the diabetes community in South Africa: medical aid coverage for wearable glucose sensing technology.
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 why the Freestyle Libre, a wearable device that helps keep track of glucose levels, is literally a lifesaver for so many.
Yet in October 2020 the Freestyle Libre, and other flash glucose monitoring devices, were not covered by South African medical aids. We were approached by Abbott and Diabetes Advocacy South Africa to help them do something about this.
#FingerstickFree: Freedom from Finger-Prick Glucose Testing
Flash Glucose Monitoring devices give diabetics real-time information about their glucose levels. This gives them valuable data throughout the day and helps them manage their diabetes more effectively. Before these devices came around, people living with diabetes would have to prick their fingers to draw blood, and use disposable testing strips. This limited the amount of testing they could do because it was painful and inconvenient.
Yet medical aids only covered people living with diabetes for the finger-prick test method. This is old-school, it’s inconvenient, and doesn’t offer users the latest available technology that can literally save their lives.
So in 2020 we partnered with SweetLife, who run South Africa’s largest diabetes Facebook group, to bring their members together with a purpose: we’d call on South African medical aids to go #fingerstickfree.
Medical aid schemes knew about the advantages of flash glucose monitoring (FGM) and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) for their members, but were delaying making any decisions about whether to pay for these devices. Public support was needed to help create pressure at the medical aids to make a decision.
November is World Diabetes month, so we had a meaningful timeline and challenge: get at least one medical aid to make the decision to support CGM by the end of November.
Our core idea was to get hundreds of people living with diabetes to raise their voices on social media, calling on their medical aids by name. But with limited time and a very diverse community, we needed to ensure that participation was as easy and inclusive as possible.
Our solution was a smart signup form that automatically generated personalised posters for everyone.
A signup form on Sweetlife.co.za had fields for people to add their names, upload a photo, and select which medical aid scheme they were a member of. They could then choose from a selection of pre-written messages of support. A human moderator on our team checked each sign-up. Once approved, a personalised poster was generated and sent back to the person who signed up with an encouragement for them to post it to their social media. This meant Instagram, Facebook and Twitter was flooded with mentions of #FingerStickFree and calling on medical aids to support the cause.
Many people also tagged their own medical aid schemes so that we got the discussion going in a broader space. Sweet Life were also able to grow their community as many of the people who participated chose to opt into their database which means community members can now be contacted in a precise way for subsequent campaigns focusing on specific medical aids.
The result: Precision advocacy through a simple system that meant we could be in touch with people who were relevant and help them to raise their voice in a way that was powerful. The community was heard and the win was theirs! Discovery now includes the FreeStyle Libre as part of their Prescribed Minimum Benefit.
Discovery Health was one of the medical schemes that had the opportunity to really listen and become a progressive partner in leading the charge. They had long been a proponent of medtech and wearables, so we believed they’d be the most likely ally if we showed them how important this issue was for their diabetic members.
Their support for the diabetes community was matched by the diabetes community supporting Discovery, as we followed up with a #ThankYouDisovery campaign that involved hundreds of Discovery members publicly thanking their medical aid and celebrating their decision. This doubtlessly helped Discovery become a more attractive medical aid, and paved the way for other medical aids to follow suit.
To stay connected to this campaign and the issue sign up to SweetLife and Diabetes Advocacy South Africa.