Flu hits where it hurts: wallets
Flu hits state where it hurts: wallets

By Jim Stafford

Published: March 13, 2008

When the flu bug hit Joni Arter in January, the elementary school secretary was out of work for nine days. Then, one by one, her two daughters got sick.

Unfortunately, Arter had used all of her annual sick leave caring for her father, who passed away in December. So, the days off from her job at Russell Dougherty Elementary School in Edmond were uncompensated.

"Oh, my goodness, I am completely out of paid sick leave,” Arter said. "I missed five days for the flu, two for bronchitis and two for the stomach bug.”

How much did the flu end up costing Arter and her family? She began to tally the cost.

A flu shot that Arter took in November provided no protection against the strain of the illness that she caught. That's $100 of up-front total cost for her family of four.

"All four of my family members took the immunization so that we wouldn't get the flu,” the school secretary said.

Then she missed out on several hundred dollars from the five full days lost to the flu, the bronchitis that it morphed into and then caught a stomach bug.

"I missed five days without pay, my family had to take Tamiflu times two,” Arter said. "My insurance paid $30 of the cost (of each dose), so my family ended up paying $100 to take Tamiflu. Then I had my doctor's co-pay amount, times two, because my daughter and I went, then two weeks later my younger daughter got it.”

Total cost for the Arter family from their battle with the flu? Arter made three visits to the doctor because the flu-bug morphed into bronchitis. One of her daughters made one doctor's visit and the other made two.

"It cost me $500 cash and then five days of lost wages,” she said. "That was five weeks ago, and I still have the cough.”

Three separate strains of the influenza virus, plus a stomach bug have swept through Oklahoma this season, said Doug Arnold, the chief executive of Midwest Regional Hospital in Midwest City.

The illnesses have taken their toll on hospital staffing as well as the patients they treat, Arnold said.

"Our emergency rooms have been full of all of these, to the point that we have filled the hospitals up,” Arnold said. "I've talked to several CEOs, and we are all calling each other to see if you have any beds where I can send patients.”

"Businesses usually have an idea of what that is going to cost (in terms of lost productivity),” he said. "But it's tough to put a dollar figure on it.”

Some employers hire temporary workers to step in for employees out with illness, which adds more cost, he said.

"You are paying two salaries for one person's productivity,” Robison said. But there are also long-term costs associated with a widespread illness such as the flu, he said.

"Across the board through health insurance premiums, that is going to increase the premiums for the business community to pay,” Robison said. "And that's whether you had any employees who had the flu or not.”

Small businesses commonly join with other small businesses to form a group for health insurance purposes, so if one employer suffers high costs for illness, it affects premiums for all of them, Robison said.

Back at Russell Dougherty Elementary School in Edmond, Joni Arter battles a cough as she discusses her family's experience with the influenza virus.

She has not mentioned one family member, her husband Neil. Has he somehow avoided the dreaded seasonal disease?

"I'm sad to say, yes.” Arter said. "But my kids and I have not been so lucky.”

Comments