Cost of diabetes rising in the US

It has been estimated that a quarter of all costs associated with hospital admissions in the US are for treating people with diabetes. The cost of dealing with patients suffering from the metabolic condition now amounts to 23 per cent of hospital costs nationwide, new figure released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, have revealed. It found that the total bill for such treatment in 2008, the most recent year for which data is available, amounted to nearly USD83 billion.
It was found that the average hospital stay for diabetics averages about a day longer than someone without the disease, and that each stay costs around USD10,940, over USD2,000 more than the average for people without diabetes.
Although an estimated 7.8 percent of Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes, about one in 14 hospital stays have identified diabetes as the primary cause for the admission. However, it is thought that many of those hospitalised were treated for conditions fostered by diabetes, including heart disease and impaired circulation.
The research also revealed that circulatory disorders such as heart attacks, congestive heart failure, non-specific chest pain and hardening of the arteries made up half of the top 10 reasons for diabetics being hospitalised.
It was shown that Medicare covered almost 60 per cent of all hospital costs for patients with diabetes, followed by private health insurance, which covered 23 per cent of total hospital costs associated with the disease.