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Recent changes in diabetes treatment guidelines and the introduction of new, more expensive pharmaceuticals appear to increase the financial challenges for nonelderly adults with diabetes. The authors used Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data to examine changes in the prevalence of diabetes and comorbidities, diabetes treatment, financial burdens, and the relationship between high financial burdens and patient characteristics. From 1997-1998 to 2006-2007, the total number of nonelderly adults treated for diabetes nearly doubled, from 5.4 to 10.7 million, and the proportion of diabetes patients using multiple drugs to treat their condition increased significantly. About a fifth of diabetes patients spent 10% or more of their family income on health care, and about one in nine spent 20% or more of their family income on health care. In 2006-2007, diabetes patients who were older, female, in poor health, or lacked insurance were more likely than others to have high burdens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey in 2014-2015 which found that the overall uninsurance rate for workers at small firms and the self-employed and their families declined by 5 percentage points over the past decade. Topics include characteristics of the study population, difference in coverage between families with only small-firm and self-employed workers and those that had also a worker at a large firm, and group of families where uninsurance rates fell the most.

The article reports data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Insurance Component longitudinal survey for 2014-2015 on insurance offers by small employers. Survey highlights include percentages of private-sector establishments adding or dropping coverage in 2015, estimation of linear regression models of the likelihood that employers dropped coverage, and differences in probabilities of propensity to drop coverage among small private-sector establishments.