Prevention Matters

If America is going to change health care, it's going to have to change diabetes. That's the conclusion of Dana Haza, senior director of the National Changing Diabetes® Program, in a column that appears in The Health Care Blog.   She uses some compelling facts to back up her assertion.

"While the rates of undiagnosed diabetes and pre-diabetes are alarming, studies show that type 2 diabetes can be significantly prevented, or at least delayed, by losing weight through diet and regular exercise," Haza writes. "But, even with evidence supporting prevention, our nation isn’t allocating adequate resources. In 2005, a study by the National Changing Diabetes® Program found that the federal government spent nearly $80 billion more on those with diabetes than those without the disease, and only $4 billion of that was spent on prevention and health promotion."