[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
[August 8, 1997]
[Pages 1079-1081]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on Diabetes Initiatives
August 8, 1997

    Thank you very much. I would like to thank Dr. Wiesel and all the 
people here at the Georgetown Medical Center for hosting us. I want to 
thank Mary Delaney and Chief Joyce Dugan and Sandra Puczynski for their 
speeches and for their example. As you might imagine, over the course of 
my tenure I have had occasion to come to quite a number of ceremonies 
like this. I don't believe I have ever heard three people back to back 
speak so powerfully, so clearly, so eloquently about a matter of great 
national concern. And I think we should give them all another hand. 
[Applause]
    I'd like to thank all of the people who are here today, diabetes 
patients, families, activists, and advocates. Especially I'd like to 
acknowledge the people on the platform: Stephen Satalino, the chair of 
the American Diabetes Association. Joan Beaubaire, the former head of 
the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, is also here. Her son works for me at 
the White House, so I get a little extra prodding on this from time to 
time. [Laughter]
    I'd like to say a special word of thanks to Mary Tyler Moore, who 
has awakened the conscience of our Nation and indeed the entire world 
about this issue, for her long and tireless and selfless efforts. Thank 
you, Mary.
    I want to thank Dr. Phillip Gorden, the head of diabetes research at 
NIH. He's here with us today. And the NIH will play a major role in the 
work that we are discussing here.
    None of us could write the history of the century that is about to 
end without a big chapter on the miracles modern medicine and science 
have wrought in our lives. Polio, mumps,

[[Page 1080]]

diphtheria, the diseases that robbed so many families of beloved infants 
and toddlers for centuries have been virtually eradicated. Premature 
babies who just a decade ago would not have had a chance at life beyond 
the intensive care unit are growing into happy and healthy children. 
Powerful treatments are prolonging the lives and improving the quality 
of lives of people with HIV and AIDS all across our country, raising new 
hopes for people living with the disease.
    But there are still frontiers to conquer and still too many among us 
whose lives and futures are dimmed by disease and illness, as we have 
heard so powerfully today. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of 
death in our country and perhaps equally profoundly affects the lives of 
millions and millions of people who have it every day.
    The historic balanced budget legislation I signed on Tuesday is 
about more than balancing the books; it also honors our values, 
increases our chances of keeping the American dream alive in the 21st 
century, and improves the lives of every American. There are some 
little-known but very important provisions in this new balanced budget 
that will take us a tremendous step forward in our fight against 
diabetes. These investments total more than $2 billion over the next 5 
years. They will strengthen our efforts to find a cure, to help our most 
vulnerable citizens better manage the disease, to prevent some of its 
most traumatic, costly, and life-threatening complications.
    These investments represented the committed efforts of many Members 
of Congress and our administration. But I must recognize especially two: 
first, Congresswoman Elizabeth Furse, whose daughter is here and who has 
diabetes, led the bipartisan congressional diabetes caucus in an 
absolutely tireless fight to include the Medicare investments that are 
in this bill. And I thank her. She has done magnificently. Thank you.
    And I must tell you, I wish very much that the Speaker of the House, 
Newt Gingrich, could be with us today. When we have a disagreement, it 
is normally well publicized--[laughter]--and widely understood. 
[Laughter] But I wish the American people could see the numerous private 
conversations that we have had together in quiet rooms about diabetes.
    He watched his mother-in-law live with diabetes and became a great 
champion for people struggling with it, a tireless advocate for greater 
investments in research, prevention, and care, and one of the very first 
people who ever spoke to me not only about the human dimensions of the 
disease but the enormous percentage of our public funds in Medicare and, 
to a lesser extent, in Medicaid, that could be devoted to other purposes 
were it not for the crushing burden of diabetes-related problems 
directly resultant from our failure to invest as we begin to invest 
today. I know he played a leading role in making these new initiatives a 
part of the budget, and I appreciate both what he and Elizabeth and 
others have done.
    Now, this new legislation will do three things. It expands Medicare 
benefits for the more than 3 million senior citizens diagnosed with 
diabetes. Mary talked about that. We all know that early investments in 
prevention can save us millions in expensive treatments down the line. 
If left untreated, diabetes can lead to devastating complications such 
as blindness, amputations, and kidney disease. This new benefit will 
make testing strips and other methods of monitoring blood glucose 
levels, as well as instructions on how best to manage the complicated 
disease, available to all Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes. It will 
empower Medicare patients to take better care of themselves at home and 
to avoid complications that can lead to costly hospital stays and 
destroy health.
    Second, the new legislation will enable Health and Human Services 
Secretary Donna Shalala to boost funding for Type I or juvenile diabetes 
research by $150 million over the next 5 years. Nearly one million 
Americans have Type I diabetes, and as many as half of them are 
children. Even when the disease is managed carefully, the patients 
almost always experience further complications. That's why we cannot 
rest until we find a cure that will free our children from this disease. 
And this unprecedented grant will help us to do that.
    Third, we will provide a 5-year, $150 million grant to the Indian 
Health Service for diabetes prevention, research, and treatment in our 
Native American communities. And I want to say a special word of thanks 
to Senator Domenici of New Mexico for his special efforts on this 
project.
    As Chief Dugan has made it clear, Native Americans are 3 times as 
likely as white Americans to have this disease; far less likely to find 
adequate treatment for it. Too many Native

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Americans are suffering from the grimmest complications of diabetes. 
This grant will bring public health services, schools, and nutrition 
programs together to reach children and families living on reservations 
and to provide them with the information and tools to prevent and manage 
diabetes.
    And I might say, I told Chief Dugan before I came up here that my 
grandmother's grandmother was a Cherokee who would be very proud that 
there is a woman chief who is doing such a magnificent job. [Applause] 
Thank you.
    Next month our scientists at NIH will be hosting a workshop to bring 
researchers from all across the country to share ideas and discuss the 
most promising avenues of diabetes research. And we will establish a new 
and unprecedented public-private partnership to bring our Nation's 
leading health care providers, purchasers, and consumers together to 
develop uniform guidelines for diabetes care. Through the guidelines, we 
can ensure that all doctors provide their patients with thorough and 
vigilant care, such as regular eye and foot exams, to stay as healthy as 
possible.
    Taken together, these initiatives can make life-changing differences 
for millions of Americans. I was very heartened to hear the American 
Diabetes Association say that these new investments in diabetes are as 
important for people with diabetes as the discovery of insulin in 1921. 
Let us pray that it will be so.
    Let me finally say that discussing this in rather clinical terms 
cannot possibly convey the human impact that Sandra did in talking about 
her child. On the way over here today, I was remembering that 23 years 
ago plus, now, when I began my career in political life, the first 
chairman of my campaign was only a year older than me and was already a 
bank president at the age of 28 or 29, but he died a few years ago from 
complications from diabetes. When I lived in Arkansas, I used to sing in 
a church choir with a man who had to quit singing because of 
complications from diabetes, and I have these vivid memories every 
Sunday of standing there looking at him sitting in the church with the 
pain on his face of not being able to do it anymore.
    This morning I got a note from a friend of mine I'd like to read to 
you. ``For the last 17 years my son has gone to sleep scared, scared 
that his blood sugar would drop and his body would be ripped apart with 
a diabetic seizure. Every day for the last 17 years, my son and his 
family have worried about the opposite effects of having his blood sugar 
remain at too high a level and thereby causing the early onset of 
blindness, heart failure, and loss of limb. Until today, there simply 
wasn't enough money available for scientific research to have a real 
hope to find a cure. Now there is.''
    It is easy to say that in the last 50 years we experienced in 
science the age of physics, the age of space travel, and the beginning 
of genetic research but that in the next 50 years, the 21st century in 
science will be an age of biology. The important thing is that for 
people and their families with diabetes, it can be an age of longer, 
happier, richer lives.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 11:27 a.m. in the auditorium at Georgetown 
University Medical Center. In his remarks, he referred to Sam W. Wiesel, 
executive vice president for health sciences, Georgetown University 
Medical Center; Mary Delaney, a local resident who suffers from 
diabetes; Chief Joyce Dugan of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; 
Sandra Puczynski of Ohio, whose daughter suffers from diabetes; David 
Beaubaire, White House Special Assistant to the Cabinet Secretary and 
Director of Surrogate Scheduling; and actress Mary Tyler Moore, 
international chairman, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International.