Severe Costs of Alcohol Abuse Essay - 912 Words

I have learned from my personal experiences that young teens should avoid consumption of alcoholic drinks. This in turn avoids many problems in the future and gives the person a better quality of life. Alcohol is the most widely abused legal depressant in the United States. The numerous problems associated with alcohol abuse are a major problem in todays society. This major problem kills many innocent people and is a deadly habit to start. One focus I choose to illustrate is the severe costs of abusing alcohol. Researchers from the University of California have compiled various statistics on the costs of abusing alcohol. They say alcohol abuse is known to cause illness,†¦show more content†¦Almost 16,000 Californians were hospitalized for injuries that resulted from alcohol use. Hospitalization costs amounted to $1.3 billion. The mean length of hospitalization in non-federal hospitals was 6.5 days and the mean cost per hospitalization was over $12,000. Public programs paid for 64% of hospitalization costs, including 38% paid by Medicare, and 19% paid by MediCal. Costs of other medical services, including outpatient care, nursing homes, pharmaceuticals, and other health professionals, totaled $1.11 billion. Health insurance administration costs in California attributed to alcohol abuse amounted to $122 million for 2001. They also found out that More than 13,000 Californians died as a result of alcohol abuse, including 3,600 who died of primary alcohol-caused diagnoses, over 5,100 who died of an alcohol ?related diagnosis, and 4,400 who died of an injury attributed to alcohol. These deaths represented lost productivity of nearly $8 billion and over 358,000 life years. (Wendy Max Ph.D) I view this as a severe problem needing dramatic solutions to solve it. 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