This is why prevention makes sense.
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UNITED STATES: “New US HIV Cases to Cost $12 Billion a Year”
Reuters (11.02.06)
A new study shows that treatment for the 40,000 US residents newly infected with HIV each year will cost $12.1 billion annually. According to its authors, the study is intended to provide guidance for policy makers and to ensure that appropriate funds are allocated for HIV prevention and treatment.
“If they rely on outdated cost information, treatment programs will be underfunded and the economic value of HIV prevention will be understated,” said Dr. Bruce Schackman, the study’s lead author and director of health policy at Weill Medical College of Cornell University’s department of public health.
Based on life expectancies of 24.2 years for patients in optimal care, an HIV-infected person can expect projected lifetime HIV-related medical costs of $618,900, the study determined. Current medical bills for patients from the beginning of treatment until death average $2,100 per month.
While life expectancies have risen since combination therapy became available to US patients in 1996, so have medical bills. The study found medications now comprise more than 70 percent of the expense of HIV treatment.
The $618,000 lifetime HIV medical bill is comparable to the estimated lifetime medical cost for US women under age 65 with cardiovascular disease, who with appropriate medical treatment have similar long life expectancies as those with HIV, the study said.
CDC estimates that one-quarter of people in the United States with HIV, about 250,000, do not know they are infected.
The study, “The Lifetime Cost of Current Human Immunodeficiency Virus Care in the United States,” was published in the journal Medical Care (2006;44(11):990-997).
Filed under: HIV Treatment
