Summary
Authors of the study estimate the 2010 health care cost in each of the state's 58 counties for treating the six most common chronic conditions: Arthritis, asthma, cardiovascular disease (stroke, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and congestive heart failure), diabetes, cancer, and depression. Per-person medical expenses for treatment in California was based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Research Triangle Institute (RTI) Chronic Disease Cost Calculator, Version 2, and cases per specific condition used data from the 2010 U.S. Census, the 2011-12 California Health Interview Survey data, and the U.S. Census and National Cancer Institute Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results. Then, county-level health care costs by condition were computed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to account for geographic variation in health care expenditure pricing. Finally, the percentage of total health care costs for each county for the six chronic conditions was estimated using the average estimated annual 2009 health care expenditure of $6,238 per person, as calculated by the U.S. Health and Human Services Agency Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The study reports about $98 billion was spent treating the six chronic conditions in 2010, accounting for 42 percent of all health care expenditures in the state. Large variations were found from county to county expenses, ranging from $3.5 million in Alpine County to $25.4 billion in Los Angeles County. Kern (34 percent) and Kings (32 percent) counties had the lowest percentage of costs for chronic disease care, while Tuolumne (63 percent), Amador and Plumas (62 percent each), and Marin (61 percent) had the highest.
Publication Authors:
- Paul Brown
- et al