Diabetic and Not Dieting? Hungary Won't Give You the Treatment You Want

A government decree went up on Monday stating that diabetics in Hungary who are found to be failing their diets won't be given the newest, most efficient treatment for their condition

Yahoo! News states the glycemic levels of diabetics in the country will be tested once every three months and if found too high more than twice, they will be given human insulin instead of the more favorable but expensive analog insulin.

The government in Hungary currently subsidizes all treatment for diabetics and hopes to cut back on spending using this method. Yahoo states last year the country spent about $131.7 million on its half a million diabetics last year, but only 30 percent of them have shown to pay attention to their diets:

"Taxpayers' money should not be spent on patients who don't cooperate with their doctor," it said.

Laszlo Bene, head of the diabetes department at Budapest's Peterfy Sandor hospital, warned however that the short-term gains would be coupled with long-term financial pain caused by future spending on treating secondary effects that might follow the use of human insulin.

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"Discipline is not the only factor but also the lack of money for good quality foods," he told the daily Nepszabadsag.

It is reported that the diabetes society in the country supported this decree. The U.K.'s diabetes association explains that lab-created analog insulin treatments are faster acting than human insulin versions, making them desirable for blood sugar management. Due to the fact they are genetically altered using recombinant DNA technology, these treatments are also more expensive to produce.