Wow. Here’s really interesting study, reported on by AP. The average American with AIDS has about a 24 year life expectancy. A big advance in the past two decades
An American diagnosed with the AIDS virus can expect to live for about 24 years on average, and the cost of health care over those two-plus decades is more than $600,000, new research indicates.
Both life expectancy and the cost of care have risen from earlier estimates, mainly because of expensive and effective drug therapies, said Bruce Schackman, the study’s lead author.
The research found that the average annual monthly cost of care is about $25,200 – nearly 40 percent higher than a commonly cited estimate from the late 1990s.
The new research also updates other studies from the 1990s, when life expectancy for HIV-infected people was closer to 10 years.
The study could influence how much state and federal governments appropriate for HIV and AIDS care and prevention in the future, some HIV policy experts said.
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