Choking Our Health Care System With Coal

As if we don’t have enough problems with our health care system, burning coal for over third of our electricity makes it even worse.

Studies show coal kills ten times more people than any other energy source per kWh produced, and ten times more people in the developing world than in America, because of our Clean Air Act. These deaths are mainly from fine toxic particulates emitted from coal plants.

In fact, the Clean Air Act is the single piece of legislation that has saved the most American lives in history, and is why coal kills about 500,000 people in China each year, but only about 15,000 Americans per year.

However, there are a lot more health effects beyond actual death, and several studies have attempted to quantify those costs – costs that include lost work days, hospital visits, disability, prescription drugs and all the costs associated with illness in addition to death (1,2,3,4).


A study by EPA’s Ben Machol and Sarah Rizk found that the use of coal in America costs us anywhere from $350 billion to $880 billion per year. That’s up to 6% of our GDP, and well over 10% of our total health care costs. Total health care costs in this country are about $3 trillion per year.