ADA urges new US Congress to ok diabetes health coverage

The American Diabetes Association has called on the 110th US Congress to address as a matter of urgency, what it sees as the "inadequate research and prevention funding in 2007."

The outgoing Congress adjourned without passing those aspects of the health budget dealing with diabetes health coverage and stem cell research, both of which are considered vital by the ADA to "stemming the diabetes epidemic."

The failure of the 109th Congress to pass a budget at the end of the current year meant that President George W Bush's proposed cut of $11.0 million to diabetes research at the National Institutes of Health and additional funding reductions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were not enacted. The current majority Republicans refused to enact several areas of the budget in order to force the new Democratic party majority to take harder decisions in the new year.