CLIMATE CHANGE: THE FISCAL RISKS FACING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
2. AIR QUALITY AND HEALTH CARE
By 2100, tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of additional Americans could suffer from illnesses due to the effects of climate change on air quality, requiring billions of dollars in additional Federal health care spending each year. This is just a small portion of the total fiscal risk posed by the health impacts of climate change.
Climate Change and Health Care
The USGCRP’s Climate and Health Assessment further established that climate change is a significant threat to the health of the American people. Climate change endangers our health by affecting the nation’s food, water, air quality, weather, and built and natural environments.
Increased extreme temperatures are projected to increase heat-related death and illness, which is generally expected to outweigh any benefits from a reduction in extreme cold and cold-related death and illness (USGCRP, 2016). Changing weather patterns, including warmer temperatures, and increased incidence of wildfire are also projected to increase exposure to two local and regional air pollutants with significant health impacts—fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone—across large swaths of the country (Garcia-Menendez et al., 2015). These pollutants are associated with premature mortality as well as increased incidence of non-fatal respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Climate change is also expected to alter the risk of vector-borne disease by changing the distribution of existing disease vectors and causing new vector-borne pathogens to emerge. Risk of food-borne illness may grow with increased exposure of food to certain pathogens and toxins. Risk of exposure to water-borne pathogens and algal toxins may also increase as water temperatures rise (USGCRP, 2016).
All of these pathways can cause an increase in both premature death (mortality) as well as non-fatal health problems (morbidity). Higher morbidity rates in particular cause health care utilization to grow
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