Conservatieve schattingen: er werd uitgegaan van 400.000 ME/CVS patienten in de USA. Nieuwe schattingen komen uit op 3 tot 4 patienten per 1000, dus ongeveer 1 miljoen ME/CVS patienten in de USA.
Kent iemand economisten in België en Nederland die deze oefening eens zou willen overdoen.
Schatting: 30.000 tot 40.000 ME/CVS patienten in België.
In de USA zijn er ook veel ME/CVS patienten die geen enkele vorm van uitkering of tegemoetkoming krijgen. In België en Nederland zou het verschil tussen kosten, niet totaal maar per patient, dus hoger liggen: uitkering krijgen ipv loon verdienen en belastingen betalen).
Er moet dan wel voor gezorgd worden dat deze studie niet louter de kostprijs berekend per patient (uitkering en zorgen), maar het verschil tussen de huidige situatie (ziek) en gezond. Op die manier kan verantwoord worden om te investeren in medische behandelingen en onderzoek.
Yogan
Volledig artikel: http://www.cfids-me.org/marys/costs.html
Abstract:
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (also called CFIDS or M.E.) is a relatively "new"
disease that sprang into public consciousness in the mid-1980s. Unfortunately for the victims, the appearance of this disease has coincided with a national mood of resentment about "having to" pay to study diseases and treat the victims. "We would like to," our Congressional representatives say, "but we can't afford it." To the contrary, we cannot afford to ignore it. The true costs of this disease to the nation are the goods and services that patients -- over 400,000 American adults -- would have produced had they been well. This paper estimates a lower-bound figure of $7.5 billion in lost goods and services every year CFIDS victims remain untreated, undiagnosed, and invisible. Since the estimate was based on personal income (assuming that the labor market is efficient and that wages equal productivity), we can add that the nation loses $2.5 billion annually lost income tax revenues that would have been collected had these people been able to work. Somehow the $13 million allocated so begrudgingly by Congress to the study of this disease seems penny wise and pound foolish, when each year 200 times that amount is lost to Federal coffers. If empathy for the victims or a sense of national purpose is insufficient, then perhaps we can understand the need to invest in knowledge of this disease to reduce the current costs incurred by the nation's ignorance.
