By Andrew Lipsitz
America’s most talked about epidemic, the H1N1 Virus, also known as the Swine Flu Virus, has affected over 33,000 Americans and has taken about 170 lives. While many American families have been concerning themselves with the health risk related to the virus, many overlook the financial and economic cost of dealing with the flu. Nobody likes to be “kicked while they’re already down,” but the H1N1 Virus does just that.
In one case, the Ramirez family was hit extremely hard by the costs associated with the virus. The father, Dr. Maurice Ramirez, was working with patients infected by the flu when he realized that he had caught it himself. As it turned out, once he got better after missing work for a week, his son caught the virus and his daughter, who was away at college, was sent home after being infected as well. While each of the family members had a quick recovery, by the end of the month, the loss of work hours, the prescription co-payments and the doctor visits had cost the Martinez family about $14,000. While the family was thrilled to have survived the troublesome month, they still had to bear the pain of watching their credit card bills inflate.
All we can do is hope to stay healthy by washing our hands and not sharing water bottles if we want this pandemic to pass. The economic effects worldwide could be disastrous if the virus continues to spread. “Reuters pointed out in 2008 that the IMF said a flu pandemic could cost $3 trillion and cause a 5% drop in global GDP. In other words, it would almost certainly turn the current deep recession into a worldwide depression.” Fortunately, the swine flu virus is only fatal to about .5% of all U.S. citizens who are affected. However, as we have seen, there are still serious financial consequences to only being infected for a week.
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