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Heart Disease: What Are the Medical Costs?

By R. Morgan Griffin
WebMD Feature

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

When we think of heart disease, we tend to imagine a sudden event: a heart attack. But usually, that's only a small part of the story.

In fact, most people recover after their first heart attack. That's the good news. The bad news is that a first heart attack is often the start of something new: life with heart disease. The risks aren't only medical. Heart disease could wipe out your family's finances and limit your ability to work.

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Here's a rundown of the costs of heart disease -- along with some advice about how you can protect yourself.

The High Medical Costs of Heart Disease

In the U.S., all cardiovascular disease costs $273 billion each year, including heart conditions, stroke, peripheral artery disease, and high blood pressure. In fact, of all the money spent in the U.S. on health care, 17% goes toward treating cardiovascular disease, says Paul A. Heidenreich, MD, a cardiologist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System in California and associate professor of medicine at Stanford University. Heart conditions such as heart failure, heart attack, bypasses, etc., account for nearly $96 billion of that total.

What are the costs per person? One study estimated that over the course of a person's lifetime, the cost of severe coronary artery disease -- the most common form of heart disease -- is more than $1 million. That includes both direct and indirect costs.

Direct medical costs. These can rack up quickly. After a heart attack, there are immediate charges: ambulance transportation, diagnostic tests, hospitalization, and possibly surgery and a pacemaker or implantable defibrillator. Long-term maintenance of heart disease is also expensive, including medications, testing, and cardiologist appointments.
Indirect costs. It's harder to grasp the indirect costs of heart disease, but they can be enormous. The biggest are lost productivity and income. Many people might be able to return to work a few months after having a heart attack. But even losing income for a few months can cause grave financial problems. Surveys show that most people would be only 90 days away from bankruptcy if they stopped getting paid. People with more severe disease may never able to return to work full time, or at all.

Those who don't have good health insurance, or no insurance, can be financially ruined by heart disease overnight. That can also be true for people who do have decent health insurance. The lost wages alone can be crippling.

Even if you don’t develop heart disease, it's still costing you. "You're paying for cardiovascular disease whether you have it or not," Heidenreich says. "You're paying for it in your taxes and your health insurance premiums." He estimates that the average person in the U.S. is paying $878 per year for the societal costs of heart disease.

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