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Study Finds Federal Health Care Diabetes Dollars Could Save Money and Lives with Coordinated Approach
Tenth District Congressman Donald M. Payne called on Congress and the Executive Branch to renew their focus to combat diabetes, following the release of a new study that found that one out of every eight federal health care dollars is spent treating people with diabetes.
“This is a wake up call for Congress and the Executive Branch to take a serious look at how we can maximize the resources that we are spending to combat this deadly disease. This study proves that we can do better,” said Payne, who is also a member of the Congressional Diabetes Caucus.
The study was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and released today by the National Changing DiabetesSM Program (NCDP), a program of Novo Nordisk, at a briefing on Capitol Hill with the Congressional Diabetes Caucus.
Since 1980, the number of Americans suffering from diabetes has doubled to more than 20 million, and that number is projected to double again by 2025. Diabetes leads to serious complications that are largely preventable with proper management and treatment. They include heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, blindness, amputation and renal disease.
Prevention efforts such as proper nutrition and physical activity are most effective with type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes. According to the study findings, the government spends $4 billion on disease prevention and health promotion programs that could help prevent diabetes, only one twentieth the amount spent on treatment.
“The amount we spend on diabetes is equal to the entire budget for the U.S. Department of Education,” Congressman Payne added. “That means we have a serious oversight responsibility that needs to be exercised. Too many lives are at stake for Congress not to play a leadership role.”
The study, based on federal spending data from FY 2005, is the first of its kind to look at all federally funded programs that have an impact on diabetes prevention and treatment. The study found that it costs the federal government nearly $80 billion more to treat people with diabetes than it does to treat people without the disease. This represents 12% of $645 billion in total federal health care spending, the official total for federal health care spending projected that year. Virtually every department in the federal government—18 out of 21—has some level of spending that impacts diabetes, however, the study found a serious lack of coordination across the various agencies and programs.
The study is available online at ncdp.com.
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