No-cost Drugs Help Diabetics in Many Ways

Did you say free medication? Researchersat the University of MichiganHealth System in Ann Arbor found thatangiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)inhibitors are so helpful that providingthem free to 8 million patients 65 and overwith diabetes would pay big dividends.Reporting in the Annals of Internal Medicine(July 19, 2005), the researchers saidthat medication free of charge would dothe following:

• Increase the number of individualsusing the drugs
• Prevent more heart attacks, strokes,and kidney failure in those individuals
• Save the Medicare system millionsof dollars by reducing treatment forlife-threatening illnesses

The analysis indicated that free medicationto seniors with the disease couldproduce a Medicare cost savings of$1606 over each individual's life. Thepatients also would live longer, the investigatorsreported.