Poorly controlled asthma doubles cost

Well, not there's yet another reason why asthma parents need to wise up and do a better job of controlling their child's asthma -- and asthma doctors as well for that matter.  A new study reported on by UPI.com/healthnews spearheaded by asthma experts at National Jewish Health in Denver concluded that poorly controlled asthma nearly doubles costs.

It's actually common sense if you think about it.  Asthma medicines and doctor visits are expensive, yet the costs of paying for unscheduled office visits, frequent emergency room visits, nights admitted at a hospital for uncontrolled asthma and school days missed have an even greater toll.

Plus uncontrolled asthma increases the risk your child will develop severe asthma, anxiety and a host of other complications makes the added cost of controlling your child's asthma well worth the cost.

The study of 628 school aged children aged 6-12 with severe or hardluck asthma concluded that asthmatic children with hardluck asthma incurred an average bill of $7,846 and those with well controlled asthma incurred a cost of about $3,766.  Asthmatics kids with well controlled asthma incurred bills averaging $3,766.

Two years later those with hardluck asthma incurred bills averaging $8,000 and those with well controlled asthma incurred bills averaging $1,861 (costs are in 2002 dollars, and costs in 2011 would be about 25 percent higher).

Facebook
Twitter