Province boosts funding for Islanders with no insurance to get sleep apnea gear

Some low-income Islanders will be sleeping easier thanks to the provincial government giving Lung Association of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island $50,000 to upgrade their equipment and expand a refurbishment program.

The project is aimed at giving Islanders with sleep apnea or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — but no health insurance — the specialized mechanical equipment they need to be get a healthy amount of sleep.  

Julia Hartley, the P.E.I. director of operations for LungNSPEI, estimated that more than 3,000 people on P.E.I. don't have insurance to cover the cost of their treatment. 

"We have had our sleep apnea program for a number of years, but we were really struggling with a huge influx of people who needed machines, and we weren't really able to meet that demand," Hartley said.

Sleep apnea is a sleeping disorder that interrupts a person's breathing while they are sleeping, because tissue at the back of the throat relaxes and blocks the windpipe.   

"You have short pauses in your breathing when you sleep," Hartley said. "These pauses — they're called apneas — can last from…10 to 30 seconds or possibly longer. People with sleep apnea can stop breathing hundreds or dozens of times a night."

The main treatment for obstructive sleep apnea and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are bedside machines with an attached hose and mask that deliver a personalized amount of air to keep a patient's airways open. The two types use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and bilevel positive airway pressure (BPAP). 

"These machines can cost between $2,000 and $5,000 depending on the type of machine that's required, and times are tough," Hartley said

"There's more Islanders in need and this is an expense that's just out of their reach." 

Long wait list for a machine

Lung NSPEI has a refurbishment program in place to ease some of the costs of sleep apnea care, bringing donated used machines back to life for new patients.

But Hartley said affordable sleep apnea machines are a hot commodity that left dozens of Islanders on a wait list, some for more than six months. 

"We're aiming at about 40 to 50 Islanders this year who will receive machines from us," she said.

Many patients require machine therapy before they can be discharged from hospital, leading to prolonged hospital stays and increased health-care costs.— Mark McLane

Mark McLane, P.E.I.'s minister of health and wellness, said in a news release announcing the funding that not getting treatment for sleep apnea can cause or worsen serious health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and depression.

"Many patients require machine therapy before they can be discharged from hospital, leading to prolonged hospital stays and increased health-care costs," the news release quoted him as saying. 

"People with untreated sleep apnea... are at increased risk of motor vehicle crashes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and even early death," Harley said.

"Thankfully, there are really great treatments for sleep apnea."

Lung NSPEI will be using a social media campaign to urge people to donate machines that are no longer being used.  

"We're actually going to be doing outreach outside of P.E.I. to cross Canada.[...] It's kind of like an innovative new way to increase the donations on P.E.I.," Hartley said.