(a) Short Title- This Act may be cited as the ‘Catalyst to Better Diabetes Care Act of 2009’.
(1) Diabetes is a chronic public health problem in the United States that is getting worse.
(2) According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
(A) One in 3 Americans born in 2000 will get diabetes.
(B) One in 2 Hispanic females born in 2000 will get diabetes.
(C) 1,500,000 new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in adults in 2005.
(D) In 2007, 23,600,000 Americans had diabetes, which is 7.8 percent of the population of the United States.
(E) 5,700,000 Americans are currently undiagnosed.
(F) African-Americans are nearly twice as likely as whites to have diabetes.
(G) Nearly 13 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives over 20 years old have diagnosed diabetes.
(H) In States with significant Asian populations, Asians were 1.5 to 2 times as likely as whites to have diagnosed diabetes.
(3) Diabetes carries staggering costs:
(A) In 2007, the total amount of the direct and indirect costs of diabetes was estimated at $174,000,000,000.
(B) 18 percent of the Medicare population has diabetes but spending on this group consumes 32 percent of the Medicare budget.
(4) Diabetes is deadly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
(A) In 2007, according to death certificate numbers, diabetes contributed to 284,000 deaths.
(B) Diabetes is likely to be seriously underreported as studies have found that only 35 percent to 40 percent of decedents with diabetes had it listed anywhere on the death certificate and only about 10 percent to 15 percent had it listed as the underlying cause of death.
(5) Diabetes complications carry staggering economic and human costs for our country and health system:
(A) Diabetes contributes to over 224,000 deaths a year.
(B) The risk for stroke is 2 to 4 times higher among people with diabetes.
(C) Diabetes is the leading cause of new blindness in America, causing approximately 12,000 to 24,000 new cases of blindness each year.
(D) Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure in America, accounting for 44 percent of new cases in 2005.
(E) In 2002, 44,400 Americans with diabetes began treatment for end-stage kidney disease and a total of 153,730 were living on chronic dialysis or with a kidney transplant as a result of their diabetes.
(F) In 2004, approximately 71,000 amputations were performed on Americans with diabetes.
(G) Poorly controlled diabetes in women before conceiving and during the first trimester of pregnancy can cause major birth defects in 5 percent to 10 percent of pregnancies and spontaneous abortions in 15 percent to 20 percent of pregnancies.
(6) Diabetes is unique because many of its complications and tremendous costs are largely preventable through early detection, better education on diabetes self-management, and improved delivery of available medical treatment:
(A) According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, appropriate primary care for diabetes complications could have saved the Medicare and Medicaid programs $2,500,000,000 in hospital costs in 2001 alone.
(B) According to the Diabetes Prevention Project sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, lifestyle interventions such as diet and moderate physical activity for those with prediabetes reduced the development of diabetes by 58 percent; among Americans aged 60 and over, lifestyle interventions reduced diabetes by 71 percent.
(C) Research shows detecting and treating diabetic eye disease can reduce the development of severe vision loss by 50 percent to 60 percent.
(D) Research shows comprehensive foot care programs can reduce amputation rates by 45 percent to 85 percent.
(E) Detecting and treating early diabetic kidney disease by lowering blood pressure can reduce the decline in kidney function by 30 percent.
(7) Research shows that diabetes self-management training programs, involving a health team that includes certified diabetes educators, not only significantly reduce overall health costs but also improve health outcomes.