Top 10 Most Costly Conditions among Men and Women, 2008
www.myhealthguide.com
MyHealthGuide Source: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), Anita Soni, PhD, July 2011, MEPS Full Text Report
Health care expenditures for the treatment of chronic conditions have been on the rise in the United States. Traditionally, medical expenditures have been concentrated for the treatment of certain types of highly prevalent conditions or for which treatment often entails the use of high cost services. The purpose of this Statistical Brief is to compare the pattern of medical care utilization and expenditures for men and women. The Brief uses data from the Medical Panel Expenditure Survey regarding medical expenditures associated with ten most costly conditions for men and women, age 18 and older in 2008. These top 10 most costly conditions for adults were determined by totaling and ranking the expenses by condition for all medical care provided in 2008. Only differences between estimates that are statistically significant at the 0.05 level are discussed in the text.
Findings
- In 2008, the top 10 most costly conditions in terms of health care expenditures for women and men were the same, although the rank order was different.
- The top 2 conditions, heart disease and cancer, ranked first and second for both men and women in terms of overall expenditures.
- For women, mental disorders and trauma-related disorders were third and fourth followed by osteoarthritis, asthma, hypertension, diabetes, back problems, and hyperlipidemia.
- For men, the order from third to tenth was slightly different. Trauma-related disorders and osteoarthritis were third and fourth followed by mental disorders, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, asthma, and back problems.
- The highest expenditures were for the care and treatment of heart disease among women and men at $43.6 billion and $47.3 billion, respectively.
- For women, the lowest expenditures among the top 10 costliest conditions were for hyperlipidemia ($18.0 billion).
- For men, the lowest expenditures were for back problems ($14.4 billion). The expenditures for the treatment of mental disorders, asthma, and osteoarthritis were higher for women than men
See wwww.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st331/stat331.pdf for full report and graphics.
Expenditures Defined
Expenditures in MEPS are defined as payments from all sources for hospital inpatient care, ambulatory care provided in offices and hospital outpatient departments, care provided in emergency departments, paid care provided in the patients home (home health), and the purchase of prescribed medications. Sources include direct payments from individuals, private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Workers Compensation, and miscellaneous other sources.
Payments for over-the-counter drugs are not included in MEPS total expenditures. Indirect payments not related to specific medical events, such as Medicaid Disproportionate Share and Medicare Direct Medical Education subsidies, are also excluded.
Expenditures were classified with a condition if a visit, stay, or medication purchase was cited as being related to the specific condition. Expenditures may be associated with more than one condition and are not unduplicated in the condition totals; summing over conditions would double-count some expenses. Total spending does not include amounts for other medical expenses, such as durable and nondurable supplies, medical equipment, eyeglasses, ambulance services, and dental expenses because these items could not be linked to specific conditions.
About AHRQ
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. Information from AHRQ’s research helps people make more informed decisions and improve the quality of health care services. AHRQ was formerly known as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Visit www.AHRQ.gov.
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