Cost to Society
Costs to society related to mesothelioma treatment:
Cost to the public health system; loss of tax revenue by governments due to Asbestos mining companies claiming a tax deduction for the compensation payments that are made to the victims.
For the first point, the Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia has stated that by 2020 there will be 13000 cases of mesothelioma and 40000 asbestos related lung cancer diseases, totaling 53000 people in Australia. This means that 53000 people will need to have constant medical attention for the next 15 years or so. And the cot will be burdened by current taxpayer and the next generation of taxpayers.
For the second point, governments are essentially missing out on tax revenue as the asbestos companies are claiming the compensation payment as a tax deduction. For illustrative purposes, assume that an asbestos mining company pays out $100m per year over five years to the victims and the corporate tax rate is 30 per cent. Therefore over five years, a respective government is losing $150m in revenue. It means that the asbestos mining companies are sharing the costs with the taxpayer. They pay 70 per cent of the compensation payment and the taxpayer pays the remaining balance.
Globally, compensation to sufferers is a very costly for the companies that mined asbestos, processed it and used it in their products, and for their insurers. For example, it has been estimated that the total cost of US asbestos exposures will be between $200bn (£100bn) and $275bn (£138bn), of which around $95bn (£48bn) will be paid by the insurance industry. More than 75 US companies have gone into Chapter 11 insolvency as a result of the asbestos claims against them.
Scottish statistics show, that Mesothelioma accounted for 100 cases in 2000 and costed Scottish National Health Service hospitals an estimated 942,038 pounds. The estimated UK figure in 2000 was at least 16,014,646 pounds because official figures for diagnosed and recorded deaths from mesothelioma are running at over 1700 a year with rises predicted for 2010 of 2000 deaths. By 2003, 50,000 people in the UK had died from diagnosed and recorded mesothelioma since records began. Earlier disease treatment costs would have been significantly lower than those in 2000 but, at 2000 prices, cost to the UK was roughly 471,019,000 pounds in acute hospital expenditure.
Anna L. Kaplan, M.D.
