Young People Paying The Cost of Diabetes

According to new research issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, young people who have diabetes will have much higher medical bills than children and teenagers who don't have the disease. Most of this can be attributed to prescription drugs and outpatient care.

The new CDC study states that the annual medical expense for young people who have diabetes totals about $9061 compared to $1468 for kids and teens without the disease. The highest part of that cost is related to insulin which is typically used in type 1 diabetics. Sometimes insulin is also used in type 2 diabetes which normally develops after childhood and even well into adulthood.

Since kids who have juvenile diabetes cannot make insulin, they must receive insulin treatment every day. Some patients who have type 2 diabetes also don't produce enough insulin to control their blood sugar levels. This means they also have to purchase insulin on a regular basis.

The study looked at children and teens that were age 19 or younger who receive insulin treatment. It found that the average annual medical costs were $9333. For those who didn't receive insulin but did have to take oral medications to control their diabetes, the average annual spending was $5683. All of these figures were related to kids who were covered under employer-sponsored health insurance plan in 2007. The statistics were garnered from nearly 50,000 young people, of which 8226 had diabetes.