Diabetes Treatment and Health Insurance CostsJanuary 2008
The American Diabetes Association released a bombshell this week, when their latest study on health care and diabetes treatment was released to the public. Smack in the middle of raging debates regarding
health insurance, costs, and how we should or shouldn't cover our citizens, comes the news that diabetes cost us $174 billion last year.
That's more than the war in Afghanistan, more than the war in Iraq, and even more than the tremendous damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina.
According to
USA Today, diabetes treatment costs the nation nearly as much as cancer, whose costs in 2006 totaled $206.3 billion, although cancer kills twice as many people, according to the American Cancer Society. And even those without diabetes are footing the bill.
Paul Fronstin of the Employee Benefit Research Institute examined health care benefits and the growing costs of diabetes treatment in America. The mounting costs affect everyone with health insurance, through rising premiums and co pays, and about half of diabetics have medical insurance through government programs such as Medicare.
When you combine this with the fact that incidences of diabetes have ballooned, with more than 1 million new cases per year striking both children and adults, it becomes clear that we have a serious health care crisis on our hands.
Providing routine care such as doctor's visits and medications is not the real issue; those things cost relatively little, according to the report. The real expenses come from uncontrolled diabetes, which can lead patients to require dialysis and kidney transplants. And uncontrolled diabetes is more likely to attack those without health insurance.
Facts on:
Health Care in America
Did you know...
According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes treatment cost Americans more money last year than the war on terror, war in Afghanistan, and war in Iraq combined?
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It's a hideous cycle. Those without health coverage are more likely to suffer from diabetes, more likely to incur medical debt when it goes untreated, and more likely to boost the
health care costs of everyone else. The rising rates of obesity in America are a major culprit in the growth of diabetes, but in failing to stop and/or control it everyone is losing out.
Hopefully, health insurance costs will evolve to catch and prevent diabetes early on, so treatment can save lives and costs. But in the mean time, anyone at risk for diabetes needs to see a doctor as soon as possible, which means finding an affordable medical coverage plan that allows for crucial yearly checkups and face to face time with doctors.
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