ABSTRACT
A working person incapacitated by an illness bears the costs of the loss of work. These costs are not included in those associated with running the health care system. Cancer patients needing radiation therapy who must drive long distances either to regional health centers or to the United States bear costs in terms of lost time that are not included in health costs nor in any way compensated by the health care system. A woman with a lump in her breast who is told
she must wait four weeks for a biopsy to determine whether the lump is cancerous finds little comfort in the advice from her physician that epidemiological research shows that it doesn't matter to the outcome if the biopsy is delayed that long. The woman's anxiety and tangible psychological pain are not included in the costs of operating the health care system.2
