foodconsumer.org: Diabetes cases to double and costs to triple by 2034

Diabetes cases to double and costs to triple by 2034
================================================================================
admin on 11/27/2009 19:28:00
 
By David Liu
University of Chicago researchers predict that in the next 25 years, up to 44.1
million Americans will have to live with diabetes, tripling the spending on the
disease to $336 billion in 2034.
In 2009, an estimated 23.7 million Americans live with diabetes and the disease
costs American people the $113 billion.
The study published in the December, 2009 issue of Diabetes care predicts that
the medicare coverage for diabetes will increase from currently 8.2 million to
14.6 million and the medicare spending on diabetes will jump from $45 billion to
$171 billion.
"If we don't change our diet and exercise habits or find new, more effective and
less expensive ways to prevent and treat diabetes, we will find ourselves in a
lot of trouble as a population," said the study's lead author Elbert Huang, MD,
assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago.
"Without significant changes in public or private strategies," the authors
wrote, "this population and cost growth are expected to add a significant strain
to an overburdened health care system."
Diabetes is a disorder of metabolism. People with Type 1 diabetes cannot produce
insulin and people with type 2 diabetes can produce insulin, but can't
effectively handle blood sugar.
For more information, visit here.