[/caption]GHN News - Diabetes is exploding. You hear it on the news and shrug it off.
Diabetes is Aunt Agnes, but tomorrow it could be you because the numbers
are doubling now; and by the time you read this, perhaps the diagnosis
will come.
Now with that deadly opening, here are the deadly
facts according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality gives
: Approximately 19 million U.S. adults reported receiving treatment for
diabetes in 2007, more than double the 9 million who said they received
care in 1996, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality.AHRQ also found that between 1996 and 2007:
•
The number of people age 65 and older treated for diabetes increased
from 4.3 million to 8 million; for people age 45 to 64, the increase was
3.6 million to 8.9 million; and for 18 to 44 year-olds, the increase
went from 1.2 million to 2.4 million.
• Treatment costs for
diabetes, paid by all sources, more than doubled, rising from $18.5
billion in 1996 (in 2007 dollars) to $41 billion in 2007.
• Outpatient care costs also doubled from about $5 billion to roughly $10 billion.
•
Total prescription drug costs nearly increased fourfold from $4 billion
to $19 billion over the 11-year period. Per patient, the cost of
prescription medicines more than doubled, rising from $495 in 1996 to
$1,048 a year in 2007.
These facts are the tip of
the iceberg of exploding health care costs. So watch Aunt Agnes
carefully and learn from her mistakes. Watch out with your diet and
exercise and live modestly as well, so you don't become one of those
statistics on the map of diabetes.
