This research examines the delivery of health care for diabetes in the American health system. The plan of the research will be to set forth the principal features of concern with regard to the treatment of diabetes and then to discuss how such treatment affects the health-care delivery system as a whole; the health-care workforce directly and indirectly involved in the delivery of appropriate health care to individuals afflicted with any of several configurations of diabetes; and the implications for the planning of health care services to afflicted populations. As well, the research will review possible lines of development regarding the possibility of resolving diabetes by way of a complete cure, as well as resolutions that may efficiently and effectively help resolve difficulties associated with diabetes treatment strategies.
To discuss diabetes in the context of the contemporary health-care debate is to invite profound disagreement over the priorities of health-care delivery. This is because diabetes can arise not only on account of organic dysfunction but also on account of a progressive, gradual deterioration of appropriate bodily functions. The nature of diabetes, as a chronic disease with more than one manifestation and course of development, implies that any commitment by a health-care infrastructure to treatment is likely to be complicated. To begin with, there are two types of diabetes. Type 1, as it is designated, destroys insulin-producing pancreatic cells, appears during childhood and adolescence, and afflicts nearly 700,000 persons in the U.S. Type 2 diabetes occurs in (often overweight) adults 45 years of age and over, designated by so-called insulin resistance, or the body's failure to use insulin properly. Because such symptoms as obesity, high blood pressure, and renal dysfunction are not necessarily associated with high-blood-sugar levels associated with diabetes, the condition is often not diagnosed until it...