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The American Diabetes Association (Association) applauds Senator Al Franken (D-MN), Senator Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) and Senator John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) for their leadership in the fight to Stop Diabetes® through the introduction of the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Act, legislation that will provide coverage of the National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP) under the Medicare program. 

The National DPP at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a public-private partnership made up of government agencies, private insurers and community organizations.  This proven prevention program provides evidence-based community programs based on an NIH clinical trial that showed participants over the age of 60 could reduce their risk of developing diabetes by 71 percent. Coverage of this program through Medicare will improve the health of America’s seniors, while advancing the fiscal health of our nation by decreasing annual federal expenditures on diabetes and its devastating complications including amputation, blindness, and end-stage kidney disease.

“The American Diabetes Association strongly supports the introduction of the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Act,” said L. Hunter Limbaugh, Chair of the Board, American Diabetes Association. “This legislation will provide our nation’s seniors with access to proven diabetes prevention programs that will drastically change the course of type 2 diabetes among this high-risk population.”

Nearly half of all Americans age 65 and older have prediabetes and are at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes. The Urban Institute estimated nationwide expansion of community-based diabetes prevention programs would save $191 billion in health care costs over ten years. With the prevalence  and cost of diabetes on the rise, there has never been a more crucial time for Congress to support proven and cost-effective programs that will reduce overall health care spending and improve the lives of Americans.