The cost of diabetes can be calculated many ways. From the CDC website:
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/aag/aag_ddt.htm
The average yearly health care cost for a person with diabetes was $13,243 in 2002, compared with $2,560 for a person without diabetes.
Each year, 12,00024,000 people in this country become blind because of diabetic eye disease.
About 42,813 people with diabetes develop kidney failure each year, and over 100,000 are treated for this condition.
About 82,000 people have diabetes-related leg, foot, or toe amputations each year.
Some simple arithmetic; $13,243 $2,560 = $10,683 excess cost from diabetes X 16,000,000 diabetics = $170,928,000,000. Or 171 BILLION dollars.
This does not factor any other human costs, such as spending the rest of your life in a wheel chair, or blind, or both.
That the solution to this tragic situation is suppressed for the economic benefit of a few is criminal.