U.S. COULD SAVE $17.1 BILLION IN HEALTH COSTS BY RAISING HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATE, ACCORDING TO ALLIANCE FOR EXCELLENT EDUCATION

If every student in the class of 2005-2006 graduates from high school, the nation could save $17.1 billion in lifetime health costs, according to conservative calculations by the Alliance for Excellent Education in its new brief, Healthier and Wealthier: Decreasing Health Care Costs by Increasing Educational Attainment.

Since healthcare costs are highest for the least educated, the Alliance calculated savings by combining the lifetime costs of Medicaid and expenditures for uninsured care, then multiplying this total by the number of students who drop out of the nation’s high schools. If these students were to graduate instead, the nation would realize a significant benefit.

Healthier and Wealthier argues that higher educational attainment improves a student’s future income, occupational status, and social prestige, all of which contributes to improved individual health. The brief cites several reasons why, including the fact that Americans with higher educational attainment have more insurance coverage, individuals who lack health insurance receive less medical care and have poorer health outcomes, and lower education levels generally lead to occupations with greater health hazards.

“This study shows clearly that providing quality education not only improves students’ lives, but also saves taxpayers dollars,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. “A high school diploma opens the door to physical health as well as financial health.”

“High dropout rates and low educational attainment result in financial and social costs for state and federal budgets,” said Sibyl Jacobson, president of MetLife Foundation. “Education promotes economic freedom and inspires a lifetime of knowledge acquisition, and for those reasons, is pivotal to all of the initiatives the Foundation supports.”

Healthier and Wealthier: Decreasing Health Care Costs by Increasing Educational Attainment is available at http://www.all4ed.org/publications/HandW.pdf.

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