The High Cost of Diabetes
No question. Diabetes is big business.
In the U.S. alone, over $132 Billion is spent on diabetes treatments each year – with about $66 Billion being spent on drug treatments. [Yes, that’s Billion, with a “B”!]
There are currently 18.2 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the United States, and 171 million world-wide. And there are major studies suggesting that another 40 million Americans simply haven’t yet been officially diagnosed with the disease.
So it’s not at all surprising that the amount of money being spent on diabetes is expected to at least double (or even triple) over the next years.
In fact, diabetes already has the highest direct costs for health care of ANY disease category. And these costs are skyrocketing at an increasingly alarming rate.
A huge part of the problem — according to Bradford Kirkman-Liff, a W. P. Carey School professor of health policy and biotechnology — is that doctors have little financial incentive to help people control their diabetes correctly.
It’s primarily about the money…
“Physicians get paid so much when they do a diagnostic test or a surgery. They get paid so little when they actually spend time talking with a patient,” Kirkman-Liff says. “Counseling patients is under-rewarded, and that’s unfortunate. It causes incentive for physicians to spend more time testing and less time teaching patients to manage their own health issues.”
Additionally, a Dartmouth University study uncovered a lack of compliance with medical treatment protocols. “Many physicians still are prescribing the wrong medications for patients,” Kirkman-Liff adds. “So the patient… winds up in the emergency room more often.”
• 45-million Americans don’t have health insurance.
• Uninsured patients add around $922 to the average family’s health-insurance bill. Meanwhile, the uninsured are more likely to need emergency care, because they’re less likely to manage chronic illnesses, such as diabetes.
• Quality-care standards are not being practiced consistently, and some health plans actually contribute to inappropriate prescribing activity.
- Trevor K. Neuman