LOS ANGELES - Joined by medical experts, patients and their families at a town hall meeting, California State Treasurer and Democratic nominee for Governor Phil Angelides today said that combating the diabetes epidemic in California will be a priority for him as California’s Governor.
"Diabetes has become an epidemic in California and as Governor I intend to do something about it," said Angelides. "My goal will be to reverse the current trend, so that the rate of new diabetes cases is falling, not rising, by the end of my term, both in the population as a whole and in minority communities."
In his remarks, Angelides vowed to take decisive action to:
- Increase access to quality health care by expanding coverage for children and working families.
- Require that all health insurance policies cover diabetes screening and education and oppose loopholes that allow HMOs and insurers to deny coverage of necessary diabetic supplies, such as lancets, insulin syringes, and test strips.
- Start a California A1C registry (similar to what was started in New York City by their Public Health Department earlier this year). The best way to monitor long-term blood sugar in diabetics is by a blood test called the Hemoglobin A1C. This registry will alert patients and their doctors when lab tests show high blood sugar levels, allowing the patients and doctors to monitor their diabetes better and catch undetected cases of the disease.
- Combat the increased instance of diabetes in younger populations. More and more adolescents are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes - a diagnosis usually reserved for much older individuals. Much of this rise is fueled by the obesity epidemic that is plaguing our young children. Angelides will work with local schools to limit the availability of high-fat, high-calorie foods and increase access to healthy, affordable foods; fight for improved physical education in schools; and create a "health report card" to be sent to parents and children of all California schools.
"The crisis with diabetes is emblematic of Governor Schwarzenegger’s tenure in office," said Angelides. "Schwarzenegger has stood by idly while the situation in California has gone from bad to worse, and he has done nothing to combat diabetes."
While diabetes has been on the rise, Schwarzenegger and the Bush administration have done nothing to address the situation. In fact, federal funding for diabetes research in the 2007 budget will be cut by about $2 million. This is despite the fact that diabetes is the only major disease where the death rate is still increasing (up 22 percent since 1990).
According to the UCLA Center for Health Policy, more than two million people in California have diabetes and the rates of new diagnoses are growing rapidly. Diabetes is the number one cause for blindness, non-traumatic amputations and kidney failure. It contributed directly or indirectly to over 24,000 deaths in California in 2000.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, if health patterns do not change, one in three children born in 2000 will end up with diabetes. Diabetes and its associated complications, which include heart disease and stroke, cost California over $18 billion annually for treatment and lost productivity.
Diabetes disproportionately affects the African-American community. Eleven percent of non-Hispanic blacks have diabetes and African-Americans are much more likely to suffer from diabetes complications such as leg amputations, eye problems and kidney failure. Diabetes is an even greater problem in Latino communities. Latinos are twice as likely to have diabetes as their non-Hispanic counterparts and nearly one in ten Hispanics live with diabetes.
