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Dear Bruce, You wrote: 2 . Be careful in lumping private sector costs of PD with the public sector costs. Private enterprise runs hospitals much more efficiently than the VA does. Also, there is zero cost to society because someone or her insurance company spent $10,000 for pills last year, that cost is only to her . Whether it is pills, or insurance premiums or furniture the same type of economic activity was created. The truly bad costs are Medicare, Medicaid, VA benefits, Social Security and other welfare programs which raise taxes and cause money to be drawn into the less efficient public sector, AND the costs of all the formerly productive people no longer I would agree an accurate quantifiable dollar figure for cost in lost productivity is probably a moving target. But surely monies spent on Parkinson's disease treatment directly (i.e. all health-care costs, lost productivity and research dollars) are truly lost. For that matter, ancillary costs are lost also. Because, if we ever reach the point where health-care costs are diminished to a point where by it eliminates the need for so many people if there were a cure, the money and resources (buildings, infrastructure and people) can be utilized in more productive ways. For example, qualified people in the medical industry surely would benefit us greatly elsewhere. As I see it the fewer dollars spent on health-care because of diminished need it would surely have a great effect in a positive way. The transition might not be smooth, but it surely would be necessary. Greg Leeman