In Morbidity and Mortality Week Report’s July 2020 edition, an article examines the economic cost of respiratory conditions for adults in America. The study focuses on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and looks at employed adults over 18 between the years of 2011 and 2015. Researchers found that “the annualized total medical expenditures, in 2017 dollars, were $7 billion for asthma and $5 billion for COPD.”
“Workers in the public administration industry (e.g., police officers, correctional officers, jailers, firefighters, and secretaries and administrative assistants) had the highest annualized per-person expenditures for both asthma and COPD….Variation in expenditures by industry might reflect the differences in prevalences, health insurance status, and access to medical care. Overall, workers with no health insurance had lower medical expenditures for asthma and for COPD than did those who had health insurance, suggesting that the uninsured population might have sought services through free clinics or might have limited their care-seeking.”
To view the full article, click here.