People who suffer from migraines are referred to as migraineurs, and they pay a large cost to their quality of life. Their bank account may suffer as well. The health care costs for a family with a migraineur average a seventy percent increase over that of other families.
People who suffer from migraines may lose money due to the amount of time they may miss work due to the migraines. Sometimes they are passed over for raises and promotions, because the condition makes them unreliable in the employers’ eyes.
But before judging the employer, consider the costs to the company. In the United States, migraines have been estimated to cost employers over twenty-four billion dollars every year. Roughly half of that cost is due to indirect expenses like missed productivity, worker’s compensation, and short-term disability.
These cost estimates do not include the cost of “presenteeism,” which refers to the lost productivity of employees who report to work with a migraine.
The highest migraine-related cost to employers is outpatient care, which is very high among migraine sufferers.
Employers in the United States pay approximately $6.2 billion dollars every year on outpatient care for migraines. Prescription drugs for migraines cost employers approximately $5.2 billion every year. Additional costs are inpatient care and emergency room visits.
While these cost estimates include the United States only, migraines are not problem limited to the United States. An estimated twenty-five million work days and school days are lost by people who suffer from migraines. The costs of absenteeism and presenteeism are so high that many employers encourage migrainuers to seek ongoing preventative treatment in order to reduce the number of migraine episodes and the lost productivity associated with them.
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