The American Diabetes Association is not fully funded by the government, it an organization of volunteers, caregivers and health care professionals (who receive support from its corporate partners). Although their outreach is nation-wide, it’s not a government-ran organization but a rather large company. It’s diabetes advocacy priorities includes:
a. Increase funding for diabetes research and programs
b. Ensure insulin is affordable for everyone whose life depends on it
c. Prevent diabetes
d. Champion affordable and accessible health care
e. Eliminate discrimination against people with diabetes
f. Promote health equity
g. Increase federal funding for diabetes research and programs.
The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) is the primary federal agency that conducts research to find a cure and advance treatments for diabetes. Investing in NIDDK is needed to advance the nation’s efforts to develop new and superior treatments, enhance disease detection and management, improve the prevention of diabetes and its complications, and ultimately discover a cure.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Diabetes Translation (DDT) mission is to eliminate the preventable burden of diabetes through research, education, and by translating science into clinical practice. Investing in the DDT will allow CDC to build upon its innovative diabetes translational research, strengthen surveillance efforts, and expand national, state, and community programs. These programs provide essential information and education about diabetes risk, complications, treatment, and management to the public, health care providers, and patients.
The National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP) dramatically helps to reduce the number of new diabetes cases in individuals with prediabetes. Funding for and continued implementation of the National DPP would allow the CDC to dramatically expand the reach of proven, evidence-based community programs to identify, refer, and provide those at high-risk for diabetes with cost-effective interventions.
SDP provides critical funding for research toward a cure for type 1 diabetes and funding for type 2 diabetes prevention and management activities in Native American communities.
Americans with diabetes and other related underlying health conditions are hospitalized 6 times more often and are 12 times more likely to die of COVID-19 , which makes it even more imperative to support funding targeted to high-risk and medically underserved communities.
For example, it would be beneficial to increase financial assistance for COBRA and individuals with ACA marketplace plans especially since the unemployment rate among Americans with diabetes was 18 percent during the pandemic (prompting a significant interruption in insurance coverage).
According to a study, a quarter of Americans with diabetes are rationing insulin and other care during the pandemic, and these dangerous cost-cutting measures are spilling into other needs, like food. Providing additional funding for federal nutrition programs such as SNAP would have a positive impact on all Americans but specifically those living with diabetes. So these are a few ways that we can have a positive impact on organizations that aim to increase research and reduce the prevalence and severity of diabetes.