Message Points

Message Points for Promise to Remember Me Campaign

Your Personal Story and JDRF Background

• Thank the Member of Congress for meeting with you.
• Tell your personal story and highlight the personal toll and economic impact of diabetes.
  • One in three Americans born in 2000 will develop diabetes, which has the potential for devastating complications such as: kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputation, heart attack and stroke.
  • One in five health care dollars in the U.S. is spent caring for someone with diagnosed diabetes.
  • Diabetes is the single most costly chronic disease in the U.S. and accounts for $174 billion in annual economic costs.
• JDRF is doing its part by funding $100 million in research this year.

Special Diabetes Program: Need for Renewal

• We are grateful to Congress for renewing the Special Diabetes Program, which has produced real returns on federal investments and provided tangible results that will help improve the lives of those living with diabetes and bring us closer to a cure.
• Please co-sponsor HR 3668, legislation introduced in the House by Reps. Diana DeGette and Mike Castle to renew the Special Diabetes Program. We hope to have a companion Senate bill introduced later this year.
  • Currently, a vigorous and focused research agenda is driving progress and translating basic science into new treatments and therapies.
  • A timely, multi-year renewal of the program is necessary for NIH to ensure continuity of research and plan long-term clinical trials.
  • If Congress does not renew this program, federal support for type 1 diabetes research will be reduced by 35%, and much of the most promising research will be delayed or halted completely.

Health Reform: Access to Quality Coverage

• Until we have a cure, we must ensure that patients with type 1 diabetes have access to quality and affordable health care to effectively manage their diabetes and prevent costly complications. Please ensure that health reform legislation includes:
  • Adequate and affordable health insurance coverage without pre-existing condition exclusions or penalties
  • Access to state-of-the-art treatment and technology
  • Adoption of health information technology with patient privacy protections
  • Appropriate education and payment for endocrinologists and diabetes care providers

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Personal Toll of Diabetes

• Diabetes affects more than 24 million adults and children in the U.S., 7 percent of the population.
• One in three Americans born in the year 2000 is predicted to develop some form of diabetes during his or her lifetime.
• Individuals with diabetes have more than twice the prevalence of disability, such as amputation, loss of vision, and other seriously limiting medical conditions.
• People with diabetes are at greater risk for stroke, heart attack, blindness, kidney failure, limb amputation, nerve damage, severe dental disease, and complications of pregnancy.

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Economic Impact of Diabetes

• A 2007 study estimated that diabetes costs the U.S. economy $174 billion per year in direct medical costs and indirect costs such as disability, work loss, and premature mortality.
• In only five years, the cost of diabetes has grown by $42 billion or 32 percent.
• Nearly one-third of every Medicare dollar is spent on people with diabetes
• One in five health care dollars in the U.S. is spent caring for someone with diagnosed diabetes.
• The costs of diabetes every year are nearly six times the entire NIH budget.
• People with diagnosed diabetes, on average, have medical expenditures that are 2.3 times higher than people who do not have diabetes.

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JDRF is Doing its Part

• JDRF’s private research funding constitutes approximately 25% of total research funding for type 1 diabetes.
• This combination of federal diabetes research funding and private investments through JDRF has created one of the most effective public-private partnerships focused on disease research and has helped us move closer to a cure at a faster pace than anyone believed possible a decade ago.

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Promising Research Funded by SDP

• Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium (T1GDC) and the Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) Study: Funded entirely by the SDP, these large, collaborative clinical studies are answering the fundamental questions of what causes type 1 diabetes.
• Clinical Islet Transplantation Consortium: Funded entirely by the SDP, this consortium performs multi-center, phase III trials that will lead to FDA licensure of islet cell transplantation therapy.
• Diabetes Research in Children Network (DirecNet): The SDP funds 80 percent of DirecNet, which fills a critical research gap by testing and validating new diabetes management technologies in children.
• Beta Cell Biology Consortium: The SDP provides approximately 65 percent of the funding for this international collaboration, which focuses on understanding the development and function of the pancreatic beta cells, with the goal of developing a cell-based therapy for insulin delivery.
• Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet: TrialNet is an international clinical research network that receives approximately half of its funding from the SDP.  This network conducts human clinical trials to test therapeutic approaches to prevent type 1 diabetes and to preserve beta cell function in newly-diagnosed individuals. 
• Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network: The SDP created and provides significant support to the Diabetes Retinopathy Clinical Research Network (DRCR.Net), a nationwide network involving 163 clinical sites in 43 states.   The DRCR.Net is testing new therapies, including FDA-approved drugs for eye disease in the aged, in clinical trials to reverse or stop the progression of diabetic eye disease.

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Health Reform: Pre-Existing Conditions

• Health insurance coverage is a critical issue for people of all ages who have type 1 diabetes.  Those with private coverage face the constant threat of being dropped from their carrier or not being able to afford their coverage due to their type 1 diabetes diagnosis.
• In coverage transitions, insurance companies may not cover pre-existing conditions or may restrict their coverage.
• To help bridge the gap, people with type 1 diabetes must be able to obtain adequate and affordable health insurance, without pre-existing condition exclusions or penalties.

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Health Reform: Access to Treatments and Technology

• Clinical research shows that even vigilant patients who check their blood glucose frequently spend less than 30 percent of the day in the normal glucose range.
• Improved access to treatments and technologies to better control blood glucose may cost more initially, but with widespread adoption will over time reduce the risk of diabetes complications and the related burden on our health care system.
• A system that continues to protect patients without stifling the development of life saving technologies is essential to the success of managing diabetes and its costs in the future. 

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Health Reform: Payment for Endocrinologists

• The healthcare workforce faces a severe shortage of endocrinologists and other diabetes care providers, while the incidence of diabetes continues to grow. 
• In the current system, comprehensive diabetes care is reimbursed at a level of a routine office visit, despite the reality that such care involves time-intensive evaluations that far exceed the routine office visit.
• Adequate reimbursement for services provided and funding for professional education, residencies, and fellowships are needed to encourage students to enter the field of diabetes care. 

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Get Involved

JDRF Blog

11.17.09	Thank Promise Campaign Coordinators for Thanksgiving
11.13.09	A Special Diabetes Awareness Month Message
11.10.09	Coming Home to YOU!
11.5.09	Won’t have time to coordinate meeting for Promise?
11.3.09	Help the Promise Campaign for Diabetes Awareness Month

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