Global healthcare financing for type II diabetes: are there ways out of the crisis?

This article focuses on the overall situation with regard to healthcare financing in the field of diabetes. Worldwide efforts on cost containment have severely influenced the management of chronic illness. An answer as to whether or not the expected financial crisis can be prevented will be difficult to obtain. However, use of the modern tools of management sciences and health economics can bring more transparency into the picture. Solutions will have to be based increasingly on empirical economic data, which, so far, are only in the process of being generated in many countries. A research agenda is proposed that might trigger the compilation of additional data in order to ensure adequate future financing of diabetes care.