Add heart disease treatment to the list of costs that are rising as a result of the aging baby boomer population. The cost of treating heart disease in the United States will likely triple over the next 20 years, according to research published in the Jan. 24 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. The United States will need to pony up an additional $545 billion between now and 2030 for heart disease-related costs, unless there are some drastic changes in heart disease prevention success, the article contends.
Researchers based their predictions on current disease rates, and used census data to project future disease rates as a result of population changes in age and race. The cost of medical care for heart disease will rise from $273 billion today to $818 billion in 2030, the authors predicted. Heart disease treatment and prevention currently account for 17% of health care expenditures in the U.S., so it already represents a significant chunk of the health care cost pie.
About 37% of Americans have some form of heart disease such as high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart failure, or stroke. Because of the predicted population changes, the AHA projects that number will rise to 40.5%. The organization believes that stroke and heart failure will represent the biggest increases at about 25% each.
Paul Heidenreich, MD, MS, FAHA, the lead author on the study, talked to Health Leaders about what this increase in cardiology patients will mean to hospital and practice leaders. "It will increase the need for cardiology services, which means more primary care providers seeing patients with heart disease and a greater demand for cardiology services," Heidenreich says. "Given that we are not training them at a fast enough pace at the moment, there will likely be a shortage and a difficulty in access to care."
If risk factors such as diabetes and obesity rise more than expected, the rates of heart disease and its resulting cost will be even higher, the article says. They further explain that the current rate of overweight and obese adolescents will likely result in more overweight and obese adults. In fact, the study goes as far as saying that the cardiovascular gains the U.S. has made as a population because of dramatic decreases in smoking rates threaten to be completely offset by the sharp rise in obesity.
Hospitals play an important role in helping educate cardiac patients, as they provide interventions, and can also follow up with education, Heidenreich says. "There is a big opportunity when patients are hospitalized and are leaving the hospital to educate them on better health behaviors."
Researchers are careful to point out that the study does not account for any future advances in treating heart disease, and assumes the current success rates in prevention. The AHA is using this study to further underscore its calls for aggressive heart disease prevention, as well as starting education campaigns earlier. Modest improvements earlier in life are more successful at preventing heart disease than more dramatic improvements later in life.
Dr. Simon Dixon, MBChB , FACC, Chair of the Department of Cardiovasuclar Medicine at Beaumont Hospitals in Michigan, sees this study as alarming and very important for health systems. "This will be a front burner issue for us and other health systems around the country," Dixon says. "The epidemic of obesity is placing an incredibly huge burden on our system. It needs to be addressed with more effective and widespread strategies."