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PEOPLE WITH MULTIPLE CHRONIC CONDITIONS ACCOUNT FOR 65 CENTS OF EVERY HEALTH CARE DOLLAR
Johns Hopkins research underscores urgent need to better prevent and manage chronic disease
Washington, D.C. - The U.S. spends 65 cents of every health care dollar to treat people with two or more chronic conditions, just 26 percent of the U.S. population, according to a new report on chronic disease by Gerard Anderson, Ph.D., Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.
The report, "Chronic Conditions: Making the Case for Ongoing Care," gives an overview of chronic conditions in the United States and their impact on individuals, caregivers, and the U.S. health care system. First prepared in 2002 for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the report was updated this year with support from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and released through the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD).
Dr. Anderson's updated data show a trend of rising rates of chronic disease that consume an increasingly higher share of total health spending. The data also show that two-thirds of Medicare spending is for patients with five or more conditions, and that these patients often require more comprehensive treatment. For example, patients with at least one chronic condition have yearly health care spending more than five times greater than those with no chronic conditions - but those with five or more chronic conditions are 10 times more likely to be hospitalized and have 25 times the inpatient hospital spending.
"Dr. Anderson's data reinforce the need to shift our thinking about health care costs. To get a handle on health care costs, we must get a handle on chronic disease," says Ken Thorpe, Ph.D., Executive Director of the PFCD and Professor and Chair at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. "The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease is leading the way by refocusing discussions in health care on finding better ways to prevent, detect, and manage chronic disease inside and outside of the health care system."
The updated report, which uses the most recent data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey -- a nationally representative panel survey of the U.S. civilian non-institutionalized population -- also documents the personal impact of chronic disease on patients and their caregivers. For example, 44 million Americans age 18 and older (40 percent of whom are employed full time) now provide care to relatives and friends.
"The costs of chronic illness continue to increase every year," says Dr. Anderson. "As a society, we must act now to adapt our health care system to meet this challenge, just as we responded to meet the crisis of infectious diseases a century ago."
