[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 70 (Friday, May 17, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H2752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                DIABETES

  (Mr. BARR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to address a mounting 
health crisis and on behalf of nearly 26 million Americans and 532,000 
Kentuckians who suffer from diabetes.
  This disease kills more Americans each year than breast cancer and 
AIDS combined and costs our Nation more than $200 billion in health 
care expenses each year. Tragically, every 17 seconds, someone is 
diagnosed with diabetes, and current estimates project that, by 2050, 
as many as one in three Americans will suffer from diabetes.
  We cannot sit idly by and accept the likelihood of this bleak future. 
Diabetes can be devastating, but it can be managed. Like most chronic 
diseases, diabetes can be attributed to poor behaviors, such as lack of 
physical activity, poor nutritional choices and other risky behaviors. 
By not only changing our behaviors but by improving access to 
education, proper diabetes care and continued funding for research to 
find a cure, we can truly make a positive, sustained change in the 
quality of life for millions of Americans.

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