Economic Impact of ME/CFS
Direct costs (medical visits, tests, medications, alternative treatments), indirect costs (lost earnings, reduced work hours, early exit from workforce), caregiver economic burden, lifetime cost estimates per patient, cost-effectiveness of proper diagnosis vs. misdiagnosis cycling, economic case for increased research funding (ROI analysis), and occupational consequences (>75% unemployment rate, workplace accommodations, disability systems). The evidence is descriptive and cross-sectional — cost-of-illness surveys, administrative data, systematic reviews, and government reports — with zero cost-effectiveness studies of any ME/CFS care model.
Consequence: This chapter provides the quantitative foundation for the argument that ME/CFS is a severe economic disease, not just a severe clinical one. The numbers that follow are not abstractions — they represent years of lost earnings, families forced into poverty, and caregivers who cannot work. They establish the economic dimension of neglect.