WASHINGTON – The Senate has passed a bill that will mean $1.5 billion over five years for diabetes research and treatment. The bill, championed by Sen. Susan Collins, founder of the Senate Diabetes Caucus, authorizes and appropriates $150 million a year in juvenile diabetes research through the National Institutes for Health and $150 million in diabetes treatment for Native Americans – a population at disproportionate risk for diabetes – through the Centers for Disease Control.

In Maine, it’s estimated that between 65,000 and 70,000 people are living with diabetes. People with diabetes are at risk of blindness, kidney disease, amputation, and other complications.

“There is, however, tremendous hope for these individuals and their families due to recent scientific advances that show real promise for curing this disease,” Collins said.

Diabetes costs the nation more than $100 billion a year in health-related expenditures, the senator pointed out. More than one out of every 10 health care dollars and about one out of four Medicare dollars are spent on people with diabetes. The bill now goes to the president for his signature.