Print“People with diagnosed diabetes, on average, incur medical expenses of about 2.3 times higher than people without diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.”
Americans need to slim down and stick to their medicine or risk becoming a nation plagued by $3.4 trillion in diabetes care costs by 2020, according to the nation’s largest health insurer UnitedHealth.
More than half of Americans could become diabetic or pre-diabetic during the next decade if unchecked by concerted large-scale interventions, the insurer warns. Barring disruptive change, it says, diabetes and pre-diabetes could account for 10 percent of total healthcare spending by the end of the decade.
Lifestyle interventions to combat obesity, early interventions to prevent people from developing diabetes, and improved medication management could all yield potential cost savings over the next ten year, UnitedHealth suggests.
Community-based interventions may be particularly effective in combating the epidemic, UnitedHealth said. It estimates that programs such as its own YMCA-based diabetes prevention course could reduce by 3 million the number of people with pre-diabetes who develop the disease.
UnitedHealth and other insurers have good reason to combat the epidemic. People with diagnosed diabetes, on average, incur medical expenses of about 2.3 times higher than people without diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.
Diabetes affects about 27 million Americans and is one of the country’s fastest-growing diseases. Another 67 million Americans are estimated to have pre-diabetes. The disease is associated with an increased risk for heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease, and a variety of other debilitating conditions.
November 24, 2010
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-u_s_diabetes_cost_could_hit_3_4_trillion_by_2020.html
.gif)
