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HomeNews Update'Captive' Type-1 diabetes patients: Paying until it hurts

'Captive' Type-1 diabetes patients: Paying until it hurts

Traditionally, medical insurers lost money by covering chronic illnesses, because the patients often ended up hospitalised with myriad complications as their diseases progressed. Today, the routine care costs of many chronic illnesses eclipse that of acute care, because new treatments that keep patients well have become a multibillion-dollar business opportunity, writes [s]The New York Times[/s]. Particularly vulnerable are 'captive' Type-1 diabetes sufferers, who cannot survive without frequent insulin doses, so are utterly dependent on a small number of producers of supplies and drugs, which have great leeway to set prices.

[link url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/health/even-small-medical-advances-can-mean-big-jumps-in-bills.html?emc=edit_th_20140406&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=42505380&_r=0]Full report in The New York Times[/link]

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