Sickle cell disease, like many chronic health conditions, comes with a large financial cost. New research shows that “the annual cost of medical care in the US for people who suffer from sickle cell disease exceeds $1.1 billion.”

The disease cause an abnormality in hemoglobin, where “red blood cells can block small blood vessels.” The result is tissue damage, stroke, and other complications. Each patient pays an average of almost $2,000 per year to manage the disease.
Image: sxc.hu.

Almost 2/3 of personal bankruptcies in the United States are the result of illness and overwhelming medical bills, despite having health insurance, say researchers. This is a 50% increase from 2001, just 8 years ago. And, it’s important to note 2 things. One is that bankruptcy is harder to declare now than it was before 2001 and that this research was done before the current economic situation, so the situation could, in fact, be worse.
Researchers from Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University worked together to produce the first known study of this type to cover the entire …read more

With rising health care costs, many companies try to compensate by cutting programs or raising premiums. But one company, Dow Chemical, is concentrating on the preventive side of health care. I think this is a much better alternative. Encouraging employees to get healthy and providing resources will ultimately save money when it comes to health care costs.
Dow Chemical even has on-site clinics and medical personnel on staff. Granted, they are a larger firm and have the resources to do this, but they also claim they have lowered their ” costs for providing health insurance to workers …read more