Questions For Medtronic

There has been an issue/question that has been swirling in my head lately, some days it pisses me off more then others and today I thought I would share.

It has to do with Medtronic...we love your pump, NO COMPLAINTS, and yes Cara LOVES your pink Mio sets but WHY in the hell are you charging Canadians $214.00 for a box of 10 Mio infusion sets and Americans $140.49 for the same exacted box of 10 Mio infusion sets ??  (there also is about a $10 difference between Canadian and American reservoirs)

That works out to be about a $83dollar difference for sites & reservoirs per order...I don't understand this.  And if you don't think this is a big deal in a year it adds up to about a $700 difference in price between people living in Canada and people living in the States.  THAT IS HUGE!! 

My husband and I thought to ourselves "Well, we are the consumers! It is time to start shopping in the states".  Living in a border city to the states we do this all the time, State side shopping is almost a hobby for some (not me but for some).  So we called up Medtronic to order the much cheaper but exactly the same box of 10 PINK Mio infusion sets from the American site.  We had it all figured out, there was not a problem with shipping (we mail things to family & friends in the States all the time and pick it up at a later date) however we were denied because we did not have an American doctors prescription for the sets.  There was nothing that they could do for use without an American doctor prescription.  Pure BS! Why would they not be able to use a Canadian prescription? If we travel abroad we are told to make sure we have all our prescription just in case we run out or need some new supplies when out of country.  So why can't they take this simple prescription for an infusion site? It's not even medication? 

So, when we were denied there I called the Canadian Medtronic supplier and told them that I wanted the same price as the American sets... which of course they just could not do!!  I asked the lady on the phone to tell me why there is such a huge price difference for the same exact diabetes supplies between Medtronic Canada and Medtronic America and she said "I can't answer that for you, I don't know"?

Has any one else noticed this, why would we Canadians pay almost $700 more per year for the rest of our or our child's life for the same exact product?  That's crazy...

and while we are on the subject of differences between the two Medtronics and the reason that we wanted to shop the American Medtronic in the first place before we noticed the savings, WHY are there more choices in colours and lengths in the States?  Cara living in Canada would love to sport a pink Mio set on her arm but that is not an option available to us, the tubing available in pink is not long enough to reach so she is stuck with tummy and tush sites in pink and really she has only allowed us once to do a tummy so her poor tush is getting over used.

  Well that is my 2 question for the day...