The statistics of how many people are developing diabetes in the United States is impressive. In 2015, 30.3 million Americans, or 9.4% of the population, had diabetes according to the American Diabetes Association. They also noted the economic costs as being $245 billion: Total costs of diagnosed diabetes in the United States in 2012 $176 billion for direct medical costs $69 billion in reduced productivity This disease, when combined with obesity is raising healthcare costs for all of us, and the companies who are selling the equipment to test, monitor, and ultimately treat diabetes have been steadily increasing the cost of being diabetic over the past two decades according to Reuters. Can you afford to be a diabetic? Do you want to avoid the disease? The good news is that there are ways to reduce your risk of contracting this metabolic disease. Check out this interesting article Cost of having diabetes has doubled in two decades by Madeline Kennedy The cost of managing diabetes has more than doubled in the past 20 years, a new analysis says. The average diabetes patient now spends $2,790 more per year than they did in 1987 - and more than half the additional spending is for medications. “People need to be mindful about the substantial increase in the cost of diabetes, which has been partially fueled by the rising prices of newer drugs,” said Xiaohui Zhou, a health economist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who led the study. Zhou and colleagues compared National Medical Expenditure Survey data from 1987, 2000-2001 and 2010-2011. The 1987 survey, involving 22,538 people, showed that diabetics spent $2,588 per person more on healthcare than people without diabetes. In 2000 and 2010, with more people responding (roughly 39,000 each time), the extra spending by diabetics rose to $4,205 and $5,378, respectively. Read more