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Health Insurance and Diabetes: The Lack of Available, Affordable, and Adequate Coverage

The first 300 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Between March 2003 and June 2004, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and researchers at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute completed a project that examined through individual case studies the availability, affordability, and adequacy of health insurance for people with diabetes.¹ Over the course of the project, caseworkers and researchers took calls from 851 people who contacted the ADA national call center (1-800-DIABETES) because they had health insurance problems.

The majority of cases studied involved problems with private health insurance because this is how most nonelderly Americans obtain health coverage. Some problems related to public coverage were also studied, however. Calls were accepted from people who were younger than age 65 and who were either uninsured, transitionally insured with coverage that was about to end, or insured with other problems. Information about people and their insurance circumstances was recorded in a database. Callers were also asked whether they would be willing to share their stories, and two-thirds said yes.

The focus of this project was on diabetes because the condition is so prevalent, and health insurance is essential to managing diabetes effectively. The U.S. faces an epidemic of diabetes, a disease in which elevated blood glucose levels damage nerve endings and blood vessels, leading to serious health complications including blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, and stroke. Today, an estimated 18 million Americans have diabetes, and 1 million more are diagnosed each year.²

Diabetes can be effectively managed, but medical care and supplies needed to monitor and control blood glucose levels are expensive. Numerous scientific studies have found that health insurance problems make it harder for people to manage their diabetes, often with devastating consequences.^3-5 Just the routine costs of managing diabetes (to test and control blood glucose levels) can reach hundreds of dollars per month.¹ Uninsured adults with diabetes are . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Key Issues: Availability, Affordability, and Adequacy

Public Policy Implications

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