NIH releases report on diabetes, healthcare expenses

WASHINGTON The National Institutes of Health on Wednesday released a new report titled "Preventing and Treating Diabetes: Health Insurance Reform and Diabetes in America."

The report comes one day after Sebelius toured the East Manatee Family Healthcare Center in Bradenton, Fla. At the center, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius held a roundtable discussion with Floridians with diabetes, NIH reported.

“Americans with diabetes are suffering in our current healthcare system,” Sebelius stated. “Health insurance reform will help ensure these Americans can get the prescription drugs and supplies they need and bring down premiums so all Americans can have high-quality, affordable health insurance.

“Health reform will end discrimination against people with diabetes by prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage or charging higher premiums to people with diabetes,” stated George Huntley, American Diabetes Association chair, commenting on the report. “It will make health care more affordable by eliminating annual and lifetime caps on benefits, limiting out-of-pocket expenses, and providing subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford adequate health insurance, he said.

“The American Diabetes Association is very pleased with this report and agrees with is premise, which is that health reform is a critical step in stopping diabetes,” Huntley added.

People with diabetes already shoulder some of the nation’s highest healthcare expenses, according to the report:

• 1-in-6 individuals with diabetes report avoiding or delaying needed medical care because of cost. Annual healthcare expenses for a diabetic topped $11,477 in 2007. A box of 100 test strips for blood sugar monitors can cost up to $60 while the price of a vial of insulin can range from $30 to $70, mainly because generic brands are not manufactured in the United States;
• A study showed that 80% of people with diabetes went uninsured after having lost coverage due to health insurance transitions triggered by job change or layoff, a move, divorce, graduation from college or a change in income or health status; and
• 14% of American Indians, 12% of African Americans and 10% of Hispanics have Type 2 diabetes. These rates of diabetes are greater than in the non-Hispanic White population, which has a rate of only 7%.