Healthcare costs can add up. Do you know the top diseases that are the costliest? According to Forbes Magazine:
Researchers looked at the conditions and diseases over an 18-year period through 2013 that are driving U.S. health spending, which accounts for 17% of the U.S. economy. “The top 10 or 20 things aren’t always things that people are thinking of,” Joseph Dieleman,assistant professor at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and the paper’s lead author said in an interview.
Here are the top 10 health expenses:
- Diabetes – $101.4 billion
- Heart disease – $88.1 billion
- Low back and neck pain – $87.6 billion
- Hypertension – $83.9 billion
- Injuries from falls – $76.3 billion
- Depressive disorders – $71.1 billion
- Oral surgery (fillings, extractions, dentures) – $66.4 billion
- Vision and hearing – $59 billion
- Skin-related (cellulitis, acne) – $55.7 billion
- Pregnancy and postpartum care – $55.6 billion
Are you surprised? In an article on Arizona Hospitals and Healthcare blog, it notes that cancer didn’t make the list.
In fact – it’s not among the top 20 conditions primarily because the disease was “disaggregated into 29 conditions,” the report states. “It’s not that we don’t spend much on cancer, it’s because we spend a lot of money on all of the other conditions,” Dieleman said.
The blog also encourages conversation about these expenses in order to make Arizona the healthiest state in the nation. To view the full article click here.