This is the October 8, 2007, issue of Elder Law FAX, a free newsletter published by the Elder Law Practice of Timothy L. Takacs Economic Impact of Chronic Disease Costs U. S. Economy $1 Trillion According to a report released earlier this month by the Milken Institute, the annual impact of seven major chronic diseases on the United States economy is calculated to be more than $1 trillion. By the middle of the 21st century, this number is likely to grow to $6 trillion.   The seven chronic diseases - cancer, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, pulmonary conditions and mental illness - have a total impact on the economy of $1.3 trillion annually. Of this amount, $1.1 trillion represents the cost of lost productivity.   The Milken Institute is a non-profit, independent economic think tank based in Santa Monica, California. The report, "An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease," brings to light for the first time what is often overlooked in the discussion of the impact of chronic disease - the economic loss associated with preventable illness and the cost to the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and American businesses in lost growth.   In addition to providing national numbers, the report ranks all 50 states by the reported number of these diseases per capita. According to the Milken Institute State Chronic Disease Index, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi have the highest rates of chronic disease . Those with the lowest rates are in the West: Utah, Alaska, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.   Although the report contains bad news about the cost and burden of chronic disease on U. S. economic productivity, the authors of the study stress that rising costs are not inevitable.   "By investing in good health, we can add billions of dollars in economic growth in the coming decades," said Ross DeVol, Director of Health Economics and Regional Economics at the Milken Institute and principal author of the report. "The good news is that with moderate improvements in prevention and early intervention such as reducing the rate of obesity, the savings to the economy would be enormous."   The major changes contemplated in the report are weight control combined with improved nutrition, exercise, further reductions in smoking, more aggressive early disease detection, slightly faster adoption of improved therapies, and less-invasive treatments.   Across the seven diseases, the optimistic scenario would cut treatment (direct) costs in 2023 by $217 billion. The cumulative avoidable treatment costs from now through 2023 would total $1.6 trillion. Furthermore, cost reductions would continue into the future, saving hundreds of billions annually in the years beyond 2023.   The authors suggest that the nature of services provided--the failure to invest in prevention and early intervention--deserves equal place in the current health care debate over extending coverage to the uninsured and designing fair financing mechanisms. An increased emphasis on prevention would both improve the health of Americans and offset some of the costs of an aging population by increasing economic productivity.   More information on the report and chronic diseases can be found on the Web site of The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, at http://www.fightchronicdisease.org.