Getting health insurance when you have diabetes can be a real pain. I know; I'm diabetic. I pay way more than anyone else I know and I'm otherwise in great shape. I've never been hospitalized for my diabetes. I'm in excellent control. And still I pay through the nose.

But you can get insurance. If you look around enough, you can find it.

First of all, if you've been covered continuously in the past, insurers have to cover you. So if you've been working a job at which you had health insurance and quit or were let go and now want to get individual insurance, they have to cover you. They don't have to give you a great rate, but they have to cover you and they have to give you the rate they'd give anyone else in your situation, at your age, with your condition(s).

But from that point, you're going to want to look around to different insurers and see if you can get the best rate.

• Consider rate comparison sites like insurancequotesreview.net. Some of the best deals out there can be found by going to comparison sites which will provide varied estimates and determine which fit you best.

• Consider your deductible. As a diabetic, you may hit your deductible every year or you may not depending on what goes into the deductible. I used to hit my deductible easily every year, but then I switched to a company that covered a lot of my supplies outside of my deductible and stopped hitting it. Obviously, higher deductible plans cost a lot less, and if you're paying a lot to begin with, any reduction in cost is huge.

• Shop around. And while you're at it, go back up to the first bullet point and make it easy on yourself by doing it online. It just takes a minute to fill out a form and then you're golden.