Circumcision decline may cost US healthcare system billions

A new study says that declining circumcisions will lead to a rise in sexually transmitted diseases, increasing healthcare costs by billions.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins said that the 25 percent drop in circumcisions could cost the US health system upwards of $2.5 billion and rise from there.

"We find that each circumcision not performed will lead to $313 of increased expenditures over that lifetime," said senior research Aaron Tobian, of the Johns Hopkins University team that conducted the study, reported AFP.

Rates of HPV, and herpes is expected to rise as previous studies have shown that one's risk of acquiring these maladies signficantly increases in uncircumcised men.

"Our economic evidence is backing up what our medical evidence has already shown to be perfectly clear," said Tobian, according to NPR.

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"There are health benefits to infant male circumcision in guarding against illness and disease, and declining male circumcision rates come at a severe price, not just in human suffering, but in billions of health care dollars as well."

A decrease in circumcision in the US has a number of causes.

Many states are no longer insuring the procedure under Medicaid, reported the Baltimore Sun.

Also, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement in 1999, saying that routine circumcision was not necessary.

The new study was published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.