Medical Costs Caused by Type 2 Diabetes in the U.S.

Diabetes is a disease in which glucose is not properly absorbed by the body cells, where it's supposed to be used as fuel. Instead, it builds up in the bloodstream and over time can have disastrous health effects, including heart disease, blindness, kidney problems and loss of limbs. It's a growing and expensive problem in the United States.

Total

• The total costs, direct and indirect, to the United States from diabetes reached $174 billion in 2007, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Medical Costs

• Medical costs were $116 million, including $27 billion for direct care of diabetes, $58 billion for chronic costs related to diabetes and $31 billion for care in the "excess general medical" category.

Indirect Costs

• Another $58 million in expenses was due to absenteeism, lowered productivity on the job, unemployment disability and the productivity that is lost when people die early because of diabetes.

Individual Costs

• For a person with diabetes, average annual medical costs total $11,744, and $6,649 of that is directly attributable to the condition.

Perspective

• People with a diabetes diagnosis make up about 5.8 percent of the U.S. population, and their average annual medical costs are about 2.3 times as high as people without the disease.