The Cost of Diabetes

• $218 billion spent in the last year by government and the public - this includes direct medical costs, from insulin and pills for controlling patients' blood sugar to amputations and hospitalizations, plus indirect costs such as lost productivity, disability, and early retirement

• $218 billion is about 10 percent of all health care spending

• estimated cost of people not yet diagnosed: $18 billion

• estimated cost of gestational diabetes: $636 million

• estimated cost of those who are considered pre-diabetic: $25 billion

• average number of diabetes medications prescribed per patient rose from 1.14 in 1994 to 1.63 in 2007

• yearly patient visits for diabetes increased from 25 million to 36 million between 1994 and 2007

• 17.9 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes

• cost for those with Type 1 diabetes total $14.9 billion

• Type 1 diabetes, which generally begins in youth and is genetically linked, accounts for only 6 percent of those diagnosed

• cost for those with Type 2 diabetes total $159.5 billion

The information above was taken from an article published by the Associated Press today. Some notable quotes from that article:

Diabetes has not seen a decline or even a plateauing, and the death rate from diabetes continues to rise

The numbers just keep going higher and higher, and what we want to say is, 'It's time for government and businesses to focus on it'

Drugmakers such as Novo Nordisk also see diabetes as an important — and lucrative — disease.