Lawmakers Look To Address ‘Staggering’ Diabetes Costs In Wisconsin
https://www.wpr.org/lawmakers-look-address-staggering-diabetes-costs-wisconsin
- Friday, July 12, 2019, 5:55am
It’s a health problem that a Wisconsin lawmaker calls “staggering” and which is expected to get worse.
Two out of five people living in Wisconsin are expected to develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime, a disease the Wisconsin Department of Health Services estimates costs $5.5 billion annually in health care and lost productivity.
“This is something that is going to be affecting us all and it is a train that has not been able to be slowed down,” Rene Walters, diabetes education supervisor for UW Health, told state lawmakers on Wednesday.
A bipartisan proposal which got a hearing before the Assembly Committee on Health would require the state’s Health Department to develop a “diabetes action plan” with data on prevalence and prevention compiled in a report for lawmakers every two years.
More than half the states in the U.S. have assess the burden of the disease and make policy recommendations under diabetes action plans, according to the American Diabetes Association.
“These issues are costly to our state and affect a lot of people and, for the most part, type 2 diabetes is preventable,” said state Rep. Tyler Vorpagel, R-Plymouth.
He said lawmakers should do “anything we can to saves the state money and makes their lives better.”
Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison, called the costs “staggering” and noted that 1,300 people die from diabetes in the state every year.
Under the proposal, the state’s Health Department would receive $107,600 to gather and analyze data and prepare biennial reports for lawmakers.
Those testifying at the committee hearing had different views on why diabetes has been such a stubborn problem to solve.
Anand Iyer, who runs Welldoc, a company that produces health and wellness software, said the problem isn’t going away with traditional methods and needs to be addressed differently.
Walters said the nature of the problem leads to inaction. Common ways to combat diabetes — diet and exercise — are personal and require change, he said. That’s something many find hard to do.
Filed under: General Problems
See I am in Wisconsin and would have to guess our T2 aint no better or worse than anyone else’s. Now they should rename this State “Kolodny”, because he and the doctors here share something in common, …influence everything for the bad and further, …they love to lie. Hardly anyone I know hasn’t got the ‘you’re pre-diabetic’ shtick. Even I got it, but the facts are I am no where close and we know high LDL and triglycerides, like opiates have natural set points that differ between neighbors and describe nothing for that reason. T2 shows first at capillary ends like Dr. Kline said. The rest of my family, who will do anything a doctor tells them, are swimming in pre-diabetes meds and none of them have it.
What disease will be next? Will this continue until only the perfectly
Healthy survive? Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Get rid of all the sick
and unhealthy people so only the best & strongest people survive.
This is what these morons are doing to Our Country, God Help Us!
According to WI’s own facts, 175 people died of “prescription only opioids” in 2015 (latest year shown at https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p01170-16.pdf). No way to know how many of those were heroin metabolized to morphine & counted as prescription.
So, 1300 die/year of diabetes, 175 die/year of Rx opioids, & the latter is the epidemic for which thousands must suffer unimaginable, unnecessary agony & death. Ooooookay.
“Dear Aliens:
Please come & beam me up to a place where reason, logic, & facts actually affect policy.
Yours Truly,
Me”