In the past 15 years, the number of Americans with diagnosed diabetes has doubled.  That means that 20 million Americans have diabetes, with about 6 million of these not yet diagnosed.  Clearly, more needs to be done to stop this debilitating, and expensive, disease.

One of the problems of diabetes prevention and treatment is that our priorities are often backwards.  As an example, at the advanced stages of the disease, our health care system will, with few questions, pay for amputations made necessary from diabetes.  Yet the same health care system often will not pay for preventative treatments or visits to a podiatrist.

An example of a program that has the priorities right was the landmark Diabetes Prevention Program. This government funded clinical trial found Type 2 diabetes could be delayed or prevented, even in persons at high risk for developing the disease, with proper nutrition and diet.

I am cosponsoring legislation to extend the lessons of the Diabetes Prevention Program.  The Diabetes Treatment and Prevention Act would provide additional federal support to translate the interventions identified as effective by the Diabetes Prevention Program into clinical interventions that can be replicated locally.  It would also encourage health researchers to examine ways to improve overall health outcomes in people living with diabetes.

The rapid expansion in the prevalence of diabetes has the potential to place great burdens on our health care system.  But this is preventable.  With the common-sense steps of this bill, we will put prevention and disease management at the forefront -- where it should be.

Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator