Chronic diseases cost Ohio $13.5 billion in treatments, $43.5 billion in lost productivity

A new report released by the Milken Institute has found that Ohio ranks in the bottom half of all states (29th out of 50) in the impact of chronic diseases on a state's people. (Source: "Michigan, Ohio rank side-by-side in bad health," Toledo Blade, Oct. 3, 2007.) According to the article, chronic diseases "cost the nation's economy more than $1 trillion a year in lost productivity, and the amount could jump to about $6 trillion by midcentury. That is in addition to the nearly $300 billion it costs to treat chronic disease among those not in nursing homes."

The study looked at seven chronic diseases: diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, pulmonary conditions (primarily bronchitis and emphysema), cancer, and mental disorders. The report also estimated the indirect cost of lost productivity from these diseases, which is lost labor "when chronically ill workers do not show up on the job" and the "productivity loss by ill workers who perform their jobs at a reduced level."

In Ohio, treatment for these chronic diseases cost $13.5 billion in 2003 and caused $43.5 billion in lost productivity. The report also states that these Ohio numbers could rise to almost $32 billion for treatment, and $120 billion in lost productivity, by 2023. (Source: An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease, The Milkin Institute, PDF download, with Ohio-specific data available on page 221.) The report said these projected economic and treatment costs could be lowered if Americans changed their lifestyles through better nutrition and exercise, reductions in smoking, along with having "more aggressive early detection of diseases, and less invasive treatments."