From the Associated Press/MSNBC:

Patients with diabetes are increasingly cutting back on medical care or giving it up entirely as they lose income and health insurance during the recession, according to an Associated Press analysis.

Doctors report that diabetic patients are skipping medical appointments, and the sales of top-selling diabetes drugs and supplies have dropped since last fall. At the same time, the number of people with diabetes keeps growing. According to the American Diabetes Association, almost 24 million Americans have the disease. Some 1.6 million new cases were diagnosed in 2007.

People with diabetes can remain healthy and active with proper care and medication, but the consequences of uncontrolled diabetes can be devastating. Among the possible complications are vision loss, limb loss, stroke and heart attack.

Patients’ frugality comes at a tremendous cost to the already-strained health care system. The typical monthly bill to treat diabetes runs $350 to $900 for those without insurance … Emergency care and a short hospitalization can easily top $10,000, and long-term complications can cost far more.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 6:45 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, diabetes, economics, law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.