Getting sick is expensive

Admin • 2019.07.02

From an emotional point of view, recovering from a serious illness can even be positive and enrich someone’s life. People may find new strengths and energies within themselves and there is a good chance, that after the illness they have a deeper relationship with their friends and family. Interestingly, upon reading their positive discharge report from the hospital they may come out from the sickness overall as a stronger person than before. From the financial point of view, however, experience shows that one cannot rely on a similar rise. On the contrary, such treatments may affect one’s financial status even years after the actual illness. 

According to an American study, the income of patients above 50 years of age will decrease by 20 percent on average during 6-7 years after hospitalization, compared to the situation before. We are now talking about a fallback that is comparable to a factory worker’s income loss for a simular period after the shutdown of the factory. The following may demonstrate these sharply deteriorating perspectives even more: while prior to the treatment there was a 3.5 percent chance on average for a personal bankruptcy or collapse, this percentage would reach 4.2 percent by the fourth year following hospitalization and would only start decreasing slowly later on. Other researches have come to the same conclusion. According to the study of the Kaiser Family Foundation, 29 percent of households have reported a decrease in their income following an illness. Although in Europe this problem is not too significant yet, in Hungary, due to the characteristics of the employment, it may have a substantial effect on the family budget. 

`These numbers reinforce our commonly shared fear that a sudden serious illness or injury may lead to a severely negative turn in our lives` says Dr. Dániel Oláh, co-founder of Fitpuli, based on the studies, `Even if it does not necessarily ruin our finances, based on the numbers, it will put it on a far worse trajectory. This is another reason why health promotion is important: it has a capability to follow a person’s most important physiological and medical characteristics and is able to make swift changes necessary to restore balance in case of a visible displacement. High blood pressure is a good example for this, even though it may be asymptomatic, a simple test repeated a few times will easily determine whether the pressure has risen due to various reasons. Early detection is extremely important, because the sooner we discover that the pressure is high, the easier it is to cure it with lifestyle changes and prevention rather than with medicine. If we ignore high blood pressure, however, it may result in numerous and very serious troubles, bringing closer a health decline that requires serious hospital treatment. Thus, we have come to a long-term decrease in our income situation. All of this can transform into a vicious cirle, if we allow,`continued Dr. Oláh.  

As the guardian of health, Fitpuli helps by tracking up-to-date physiological information and medical summaries (results) in one application, while providing personalized health program for the user.