The Rising Cost of Diabetes
Today, the American Diabetes Association, members of the Congressional Diabetes Caucus and diabetes experts hosted a congressional briefing to discuss the annual diabetes cost estimates for 2007 which were compiled in a study by the Lewin Group on behalf of the ADA. This study is an update of the previous cost study published five years ago and is the definitive source of information about diabetes costs in the U.S.
The latest figures reveal the devastating expense incurred by Americans. The new cost study finds that the total cost of diabetes in the U.S. in 2007 was $174 billion, up from $132 billion in 2002. Direct costs due to treating diabetes and its complications amount to $116 billion; indirect costs attributed to lost productivity amount to $58 billion. To find out the cost of diabetes in your area use the Diabetes Cost Calculator.
Help us put an end to diabetes and the toll it takes on America. Join us on the New England Classic Bicycle tour and raise the much needed funds for research, education and advocacy.
Bernard Farrell said:
These are big figures and they’re a little hard to try and imagine.
If you take the US population at about 300 million people (World Factbook 2007) and assuming the $174 billion figure is accurate then the cost of diabetes was about $580 for EVERY person in the US.
If you’ve got a family of four, the effective cost to your family was about $2,320 last year.
If a cure was actually found for diabetes, that much extra money could be put into other things that would help the US in many ways.
It’s fairly mind-boggling.
cycling.finial.com » Blog Archive » Cheating Destiny : Living with Diabetes, America’s Biggest Epidemic by James S. Hirsch. said:
[...] this while realizing that the newly released figures on the cost of this disease is now pegged at 174 billion (with a b) dollars per year (in the US only), an increase of over $40B in just five [...]