A New Plan
Health care dominates the news. We are a nation living longer, but at
a huge cost. Special interest groups point fingers and blame
someone else. Gun toting citizens scream into microphones at town
hall meetings. Yet in all of it, there is no mention of the burden
alcohol places on the entire health care system.
No one identifies the 20,000 alcohol-related emergency room
admissions that occur every day in the U. S. It’s insignificant that
alcohol is the #1 preventable cause of death among people under 21
and the 3rd leading preventable cause of death among adults.
Annual health care expenditures for alcohol-related problems
amount to $22.5 billion; the total cost of alcohol problems is $175.9 billion a year. And no one, not even the
governors in Michigan, Florida and California, suggest that alcohol be taxed and adjusted to the rate of inflation
to pay for the tremendous health care burden it creates, let alone use this tax to help reduce enormous state
deficits. We need a new plan.
The new plan would talk honestly about the economic burden of alcohol on health care. It would make a case for
more accurate reporting and put a dollar figure on the merits of taxing alcohol to help pay for the costs of health
care. Over time, the new plan could lead to massive change that would positively impact the entire U.S. citizenry.
The new plan would openly welcome treatment and support for people suffering from alcoholism. It would
demand greater access to treatment for both youth and adults. It would treat alcoholism like any other medical
condition. It provides education and support not only to the alcoholic, but to their spouses and children who
suffer the secondary effects of the disease. The new plan empowers people. It is the face of some of the most
significant people in our lives who have been unable to benefit from what the new plan could help accomplish.
We do understand the power of knowledge when it comes to public health and safety. We can put a monetary
value on the benefit of policies that protect people. We’ve done it extraordinarily well with smoking, drinking and
driving, diet and exercise, seat belt safety and dental health. And yet beyond drinking and driving, we ignore the
benefits of applying these same principals to alcohol in general.
We need a new plan. There is very little awareness, advocacy or discussion about concrete solutions. Until this
changes, nothing can change for future generations.
• Twenty-five to forty percent of all patients in U.S. general hospital
beds (not in maternity or intensive care) are being treated for
complications of alcohol-related problems.
(1)
• Annual health care expenditures for alcohol-related problems
amount to $22.5 billion. The total cost of alcohol problems is $175.9
billion a year (compared to $114.2 billion for other drug problems
and $137 billion for smoking).
(2)
• In comparison to moderate and non-drinkers, individuals with a
history of heavy drinking have higher health care costs.
(3)
• Untreated alcohol problems waste an estimated $184.6 billion dollars per year in health care, business and
criminal justice costs, and cause more than 100,000 deaths.
(4)
• Health care costs related to alcohol abuse are not limited to the user. Children of alcoholics who are admitted
to the hospital average 62 percent more hospital days and 29 percent longer stays.
(5)
• Alcohol use by underage drinkers results in $3.7 billion a year in medical care costs due to traffic crashes,
violent crime, suicide attempts and other related consequences. The total annual cost of alcohol use by
underage youth is $52.8 billion.
(6)
• Alcohol-related car crashes are the number one killer of teens. Alcohol use is also associated with homicides,
suicides and drownings - the next three leading causes of death among youth.
(7)
• Alcohol is the drug most frequently used by 12- to 17-year-olds and the one that causes the most negative
health consequences. More than 4 million adolescents under the legal drinking age consume alcohol in any
given month.
(8)
• For an estimate of the costs that alcohol problems may be causing your workplace, and suggestions on what a
company can do to identify and treat costly alcohol problems, go to the Alcohol Cost Calculator:
http://www.alcoholcostcalculator.org.
(9)
1 Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University, The Cost of Substance Abuse to America's
Health Care System, Report 1: Medicaid Hospital Costs, 1994.
2 Economic costs of substance abuse, 1995. Dorothy P. Rice. Proceedings of the Association of American
Physicians 111(2): 119-125. 1999.
3 Hunkeler EM, Hung, Yun-Yi, Rice DP, Weiser C and Hu, Teh-wei. Alcohol Consumption Patterns and Health
Care Costs in an HMO. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Vol 64, Issue 2, pp 181-190, October 2001.
4 Harwood, H. Updating Estimates of the Economic Costs of Alcohol Abuse in the United States: Estimates,
Update Methods, and Data. Report prepared by The Lewin Group for the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2000.
5 Children of Alcoholics Foundation, Children of Alcoholics in the Medicaid System: Hidden Problems,
Hidden Costs, 1990.
6 Costs of Underage Drinking. David T. Levy, Ted R. Miller, and Kenya C. Cox.
U.S. Department of Justice, Justice Programs, Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. Rockville MD. October 1999.
7 Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's Discussion Paper on Preventing Alcohol, Tobacco and Other
Drug Problems, 1993.
8 See number 2.
9 http://ensuringsolutions.org/
