Excessive alcohol consumption costs Americans $250 billion each year.
Yes, that is the cost to the American economy from those who overindulge in alcohol consumption. This is not the cost of their bar tabs, or their liquor purchases. Rather, it’s the cost of lost wages, unpaid medical bills, court costs, incarceration costs and higher insurance premiums that hit the rest of us.
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These findings come from a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The original study collected data in 2006. This newest data updates the study with numbers from 2010.
It was the increase of the total costs in that four-year span that researchers found most alarming.
Lost wages, unpaid medical bills, court costs, jail costs and higher insurance premiums equate to a $250 billion unpaid bar tab for the rest of us.
“The most important finding is that we noted about an 11 percent increase in the economic cost of excessive alcohol consumption from 2006 to 2010,” Dr. Robert Brewer, head of CDC’s alcohol program and one of the study’s authors, told LifeZette.
The estimated total cost of $224 billion in 2006 grew to about $250 billion in 2010. About 70 percent of those costs were related to decreased productivity in the workforce.
“A big piece of the pie was reduced wages among people who are alcohol dependent,” Brewer told LifeZette.
Cynthia Riedel, a licensed alcohol dependency counselor with Avalon Programs in Brainerd, Minnesota, sees the economic impact of excessive alcohol use on a regular basis.
“Every alcoholic creates costs,” Riedel said. “I have a worksheet that I have (my clients) fill out. They add all the costs up and then write five things they could have done with that money.”
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Her worksheet lists personal costs to an individual or family, but these costs impact the rest of society as well, usually on an even bigger scale. The worksheet includes things like the cost of treatment, incarceration, fines, lawyer fees, loss of wages, medical costs, loss of homes, loss of vehicles, higher insurance premiums and the costs of divorce.
Employers also experience the impact of excessive alcohol use.
Jim Koons is a superintendent in the construction industry. He has worked as a foreman or superintendent for more than 16 years in locations all over the United States. During that time, he has had to terminate several workers due to alcohol-related issues.
“It’s a safety issue,” Koons told LifeZette. “If you’re operating equipment and are more focused on the headache from your hangover than on your surroundings, you endanger the safety of your fellow workers.”
When asked whether he’s noticed any change in the prevalence of excessive alcohol use affecting the construction workforce, Koons surprising said the problem seems to have decreased in the past five years.
Twyla Flaws, who has worked in human resources for a manufacturing company for more than 30 years, agreed.
“Alcohol used to be the drug of choice,” Flaws remarked. “Meth, synthetic drugs and pot are bigger issues now.”
Missed work hours isn’t the only factor that went into the lost productivity calculation in the study.
“Another big portion of the productivity pie had to do with the loss of income and economic contribution among people who died of alcohol attributable causes,” Brewer said.
The CDC estimates that about 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults are due to excessive alcohol use. Those deaths enter the statistics from a variety of directions — accidents, violence and health issues, including many types of cancer — all relate to excessive use of alcohol.
Brewer said the $250 billion estimate is certain to be an underestimate of the total costs.
“There are a lot of things we couldn’t measure,” he said.
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