Today, November 2nd, is Election Day in the United States, where approximately a third of the U.S. Senate and all of the House of Representatives are up for re-election. Additionally, state and local electoral races can have a large impact on the direction and level of government involvement iin developing public policy for diabetes prevention and treatment.
One aspect of the recent health care reform bill (Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010) signed into law by President Obama will help lower the barrier to treatment for elderly Americians with diabetes by including preventative care such as blood sugar testing and cholesterol screening as a covered benefit under Medicare.
Another benefit of the new law is the mandate that requires health insurance companies to extend insurance coverage to child with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes.
Senior citizens that found themselves caught in the “donut hole” coverage and having to pay for a significant portion of their prescription drugs under the Medicare Part D plans will find that the “donut hole” will disappear by 2020. This change in policy is an important component for effective diabetic care and management since many diabetics require prescription medications to control their diabetes and that approxiamately 15% of patients stopped taking their medications once they reached the Medicare “donut hole” based on a Kaiser Foundation research paper and were required to pay the full cost of their medications until their catastrophic coverage kicked in.
