Health problems cost billions lost productivity: study calculates economic savings of providing access to health care benefits.(Health Care)

Publication: Medicine & Health

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Eli Research, Inc.

Health problems among working-age Americans and their families carry an estimated price tag of $260 billion in lost productivity each year, a new Commonwealth Fund report released on Aug. 31 shows.

According to the survey, an estimated 18 million Americans ages 19 to 64 are not working and have a disability or chronic disease, or do not work because of health reasons. The study authors argue that investing in workers' health and the preventing disability and serious illness would expand the labor force, significantly increasing the nation's standard of living and economic output. The nation loses $185 billion each year in economic output because of its workers' health problems--and this figure reflects lost work time at minimum wage.

In 2003, 12 percent of working-age adults did not work because of health reasons or a disability. Seventy-percent either missed days of work as a result of their own illness or that of family members, or were unable to concentrate at work as a result of health concerns. Forty-one percent were either absent...

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