Diabetes- Overview
Updated March 2013
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2007, the medical costs associated with diabetes were $116 billion and the indirect costs (disability, work loss, premature mortality) were $58 billion. State legislatures throughout the country are actively exploring policy options to deal with this growing problem. An estimated 26 million people in the United States—8.3 percent of the population—have diabetes, a serious and chronic condition. Of those, 25 percent do not yet know that they have the condition. In addition, an estimated 79 million U.S. adults have pre-diabetes—an elevated blood sugar level that is not high enough to be classified as diabetes, but which greatly raises their risk of developing type 2 diabetes and its complications. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. It's complications, including heart disease, stroke, amputations, blindness and kidney disease, are both serious and expensive. The cost to treat an individual with diabetes is more than 200 percent higher than the cost to treat a non-diabetic.
As of March, 2013, there have been at least 130 diabetes-related bills proposed across 20 states, territories, or D.C.
Newer Resources
States Address the Cost of Diabetes: A 50-State Budget Survey for Fiscal Year 2012. As a means to assess how states are responding to the diabetes epidemic, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) conducted a 50-state analysis of appropriations for FY 2012. This analysis reviewed state budgets and related state budget documents that explicitly identified diabetes programmatic appropriations. The methodology used included reviewing state budgets and supplemental budgets and interviewing staff in state fiscal offices, legislative services and state departments of health. This survey follows upon the first 50-state analysis of FY 2011 state budgets dedicated to spending and appropriations on diabetes activities, published by NCSL in May 2011.
Chronic Cost of Diabetes - NCSL's April 2012 State Legislatures magazine highlights issues and challenges.
Diabetes Health Coverage: State Laws and Programs - Click here to learn more about diabetes insurance coverage in all 50 states; with material aimed at both policymakers and consumers. Also available in a full color print edition - 70 pages of facts and programs in convenient form. Online edition updated in May 2011.
 Diabetes State Legislation Overview - This page contains a number of tables that provide examples of various diabetes legislative options considered or enacted in 2007-2009. Many state legislatures considered diabetes related legislation in the 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 sessions. The introduced legislation mainly focused on the areas of research, public education, diabetes prevention and management. Below are a number of tables that provide examples of various diabetes legislative options enacted in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Disparities in Health - African American, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native adults are twice as likely as white adults to have diabetes. Other diabetes risk factors include being over age 45, overweight, inactive or having had gestational diabetes. Even those at highest risk benefit from prevention and treatment. Cutting calories to lose 5 percent to 7 percent of body weight and increasing physical activity—walking for 30 minutes five days per week—reduced diabetes onset by 58 percent in a major study. Click here to learn more about diabetes health disparities.
Women's Health - Diabetes is the fifth leading cause of death among women ages 45-54 in the United States and a major cause of disability. An estimated 9.1 million women have diabetes, but one-third of them are unaware of their illness. Click here to learn more about women and diabetes.
Gestational diabetes happens in a woman who develops diabetes during pregnancy. Poor control of gestational diabetes increases the chance for birth defects and other problems. Click here for more information.
Diabetes cost calculator with state-by-state estimates of diabetes economic cost; published by the American Diabetes Association.
NCSL Publications
LegisBrief - States Address Diabetes in Minority Populations
NCSL's June 2012 Legisbrief highlights actions of states and public private partnerships to tackle type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Postcard - Women and Diabetes
This National Conference of State Legislatures postcard provides some brief statistics about women and diabetes, costs, and control and prevention (March 2008).
Public Health Herald - Topic of the Quarter: Diabetes
Diabetes, the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, accounts for more than 200,000 deaths and also causes blindness, kidney failure, and lower-limb amputations among other ailments. Treating diabetes costs $116 billion annually—more than 5 percent of total health care spending—with a further $58 billion in indirect economic costs. Diabetes cases are often orevntable (Fall 2008).
Postcard - Diabetes Prevalence: County Level
This National Conference of State Legislatures postcard provides the latest national data released and available by the CDC in 2010 about county level diabetes prevalence (July 2010).
Report- Diabetes in State Budgets
This National Conference of State Legislatures report provides a 50-state survey of diabetes funding in the states and CDC funding for Diabetes Prevention and Control Programs (May 2011).
Report- Federal Health Reform Provisions Related to Diabetes
This National Conference of State Legislatures report provides an overview of the components of the Affordable Care Act that related to diabetes (May 2011).
LegisBrief- State Approaches to Prevent and Control Diabetes
Diabetes accounts for 10 percent of all U.S. health care spending and is expected to become even more prevalent. State programs can help prevent the disease and improve its treatment (September 2011).
Public Health Herald- Preventing and Controlling Diabetes
To address the increasing burden of diabetes, and disparities in health care coverage for the condition, CDC funds state-based diabetes prevention and control programs in all states, the District of Columbia, and eight territories. Several of these programs encourage Medicaid reimbursement for patients’ education on the self-management of diabetes. (November 2011).
LegisBrief - Diabetes: Rising Rates, Disability and Death (October 2006).
NCSL Resources
In the News
-
A Med Page Today article posted on March 23, 2013 titled Diaparities in Diabetes Risk Often Overlooked and writen by David Pittman noted that "the patient's culture should also inform treatment plans. "The treatments are standards, but the way they are explained or taken up may be different," Golden [Sherita Golden, MD, director of inpatient diabetes management at Johns Hopkins University] told MedPage Today. "It's important for physicians to consider that." For example, rice is a staple of Asian diets, so telling Asian diabetics to cut out rice is unrealistic, she explained. Instead, doctors can tell patients to eat smaller portions or to eat brown rather than white rice. Past research has shown racial disparities in outcomes between patients treated at the same clinic suggesting that providers and their treatment plans were to blame. Providers can take steps in their practice to help them better treat minority diabetics, Arleen Brown, MD, PhD, of the University of California in Los Angeles, told conference attendees."
-
Washington Post, "CDC report: Diabetes rates tripled in Oklahoma and more than doubled in some Southern states." November 15, 2012
-
In his November 26, 2012 article, NICHOLAS BAKALAR of the New York Times, reports Low Vitamin D Level Tied to Type 1 Diabetes. "Researchers examined frozen blood samples taken between 2002 and 2008 from 1,000 active-duty military personnel, who all later developed Type 1 diabetes. They matched each with a sample from a healthy person of the same age and sex drawn within two days of the same date, and then tracked cases through 2011. The results appear in the December issue of the journal Diabetologia."
-
Diabetes Surgery Tops Medical Innovation List. "Bariatric surgery for diabetes treatment was selected as the most important medical innovation for 2013 in a poll of Cleveland Clinic physicians and researchers." October 31, 2012.
-
Study: Sharp Rise of Diabetes in Youth - 23 percent of American adolescents may be "on the verge of developing Type 2 diabetes or could already be diabetic." Published in Pediatrics Digest (full text); reported in U.S. News & World Report and Time, 5/21/2012.
-
New Healthline.com Interactive Map Visualizes Correlation between Type 2 Diabetes and Access to Fresh Food, Poverty Levels - "Free, County-level Data Tool Puts into Visual Context the Relationship Between Type 2 Diabetes, Areas Defined as “Food Deserts” and Areas with Lower Household Income." PRWeb, 4/12/2012.
-
Obesity-Linked Diabetes Harder to Treat in Children - Not only are more children developing type 2 diabetes, but the disease develops more quickly and is less responsive to treatment, a new study has found. New York Times, 4/29/2012
-
NIH Study Finds Interventions to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes Giver Good Return on Investment - "Programs to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes in high-risk adults would result in fewer people developing diabetes and lower health care costs over time." National Institutes of Health, 3/22/2012.
-
Telemedicine Tackles Diabetes Epidemic - "A partnership between a telehealth service provider and a leading diabetes research institution could accelerate health information interoperability and boost national efforts to improve people's health." Information Week, Neil Versel, 3/14/2012.
-
Type 2 Diabetes Risk Higher in Women Working Night Shift - Medscape Clinical Briefs, 12/12/2011
-
One in 10 Adults to Have Diabetes by 2030 as Cases Surge 90%, Report Says
-
Type 1 Diabetes Checks Are Crucial for Students, School Staff
-
Diabetes Prevention Programs Could Save Billions in Health Care Costs
-
Disparities in Diabetes Self-Management and Quality of Care in Rural Versus Urban Veterans
-
Move to Better Area Tied to Less Diabetes
-
Electronic Health Records and Quality of Diabetes Care
-
Creepy-crawlies may help heal diabetes wounds
-
EHRs Improve Care Coordination For Diabetics
-
Approximately $40 million in Affordable Care Act funds for statewide chronic disease prevention programs
-
Colorado Clinic Aims to Stave Off Burdens of Diabetes with 1-stop Coordinated Care
-
Reducing drug co-pays might lower health-care costs for companies, new study finds
-
Diabetes in pregnancy a risk for mom years later
-
Diabetes May Affect as Many as 1 in 3 Americans by 2050
-
Strong Link between Diabetes and Air Pollution Found in National US Study
-
Lifestyle Intervention Improves Risk Factors in Type 2 Diabetes
-
Diabetes and Alzheimer's Linked
-
Breastfeeding Cuts Moms Diabetes Risk
-
Federal Health Reform Provisions Related to Diabetes Processed Meat Linked to Higher Heart Disease, Diabetes Risk
-
Combating Childhood Obesity May Start in the Womb
-
An Insurer’s New Approach to Diabetes
-
Diet, Exercise Can Delay, Prevent Diabetes Onset
|
Other Resources
|
|
NOTE: NCSL provides links to other Web sites from time to time for information purposes only. Providing these links does not necessarily indicate NCSL's support or endorsement of the site.
|
This site is made possible with support from Novo Nordisk and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
|