Cerebral Palsy Costs
Over the lifetime of your child, the cerebral palsy costs can stretch to $1 million in total. It can cost you much. Many times when someone has this conditon, you won’t hear much about the associated costs that they face medically. These costs will most likely continue over the child’s lifetime, so you want to remain aware of them. You can also seek financial help to make some of the costs go down. In many cases, families have found themselves overwhelmed and in debt because of these things.
The Most Common Expenses
Some of the most common expenses that you will encounter with this condition include:
- Family expenses
- Business and economic expenses
- Diet and regimen
You can have a lot of costs with this medical condition because you have to do certain things with a child who has cerebral palsy to ensure that their symptoms will be lessened.
Family Expenses
For the average family over the course of a child’s lifetime, you can expect to pay up to $921,000 for the child. For children with intellectual disabilities, you can expect to pay $1 million over the child’s lifetime. A child with a vision impairment will mean paying $601,000, and a child who has hearing loss you will pay $383,000 for them. Some of the family expenses that often go uncounted include:
- Lost wages
- Emergency room visits
- Out-of-pocket expenses
While the expenses for one child with CP might be higher, the expenses for another child with CP might be lower. This largely depends on the child’s severity of the condition. For example, a child who has a less severe form of it will not need as many doctor’s visits and medications as a child who has more severe symptoms of it.
Business and Economic Expenses
Because of a loss of work, $9.241 billion were lost on the accounts of members. Along with a loss of work, this includes losing work productivity and an early mortality rate as well. This birth injury can have a negative affect on the economy. The expenses have also gone for therapy, rehabilitation and specialized medical care. In total, $52 billion has been lost over the lifetime of a business.
Diet and Regimen
Many people underestimate the cerebral palsy costs to diet and regimen. With this birth disorder, your child can benefit from having a specific and healthy diet. In particular, the ketogenic diet has proven helpful to children with CP. The ketogenic diet consists of foods low in carbohydrates and high in fats. Through the foods high in fat, it causes what has become known as ketosis. This happens when the ketones in the body increase.
For the average family, they simply can’t afford to pay for the medical expenses associated with this condition. For those cases, they might seek financial help as a way of lowering the associated costs with it.