The Center for Disease Control and Prevention informs that 37.3 million Americans have diabetes. That’s 1 out of 10 Americans! 96 million people in the United States have prediabetes, that’s 1 in 3, but one of the most interesting facts from the CDC is that 8 out of 10 adults don’t even know that they’re prediabetic.
According to the CDC, diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. On top of that it’s estimated that the total cost of diabetes, including medical costs, lost work, and wages in the United States is $327 billion. The average cost for medical services for individuals with diabetes is typically double the cost of someone without diabetes.
There are three types of diagnoses for diabetes prediabetic, Type one diabetes, and Type two diabetes.
Prediabetes means that your blood sugar is higher than normal. It’s not high enough to make you a type 2 diabetic, but without changes to your lifestyle, you are at a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The most positive news about being prediabetic is that it can be reversable. This can be helped by a healthy diet and physical activity. Some situations may even require medications.
Type one diabetes is a is thought to be an auto-immune reaction. Meaning the body attacks itself by mistake and this reaction stops the body from making insulin. Because of this type one diabetes isn’t caused by lifestyle choices. It can be caused by a trigger for people who have certain genes.
Type two diabetes happens when your body doesn’t respond normally to insulin. Your pancreas makes more insulin to try to make your body cells respond, but eventually your pancreas can’t keep up and your blood sugar rises, which will eventually be the first step into prediabetics.
Diabetes affects your physical, mental, and emotional states. With no cure for diabetes, your ultimate goal for the disease is to manage it and to try and make sure it doesn’t get worse.
So now that we understand a little bit about diabetes, how does it affect your group medical insurance?
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, insurance carriers are no longer able to charge you more, deny you, or your claims for pre-existing conditions. This means that when it comes to group medical insurance, insurance carriers must treat you the same as everyone else.