Chronic Disease Cost Calculator Version 2

Chronic diseases are among the most prevalent, costly, and preventable of all health problems. Medical spending has grown rapidly in recent years and is placing a significant burden on state budgets. To help states estimate the economic burden of chronic diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and RTI International developed the Chronic Disease Cost Calculator version 2. Please note that this is an update to version 1 of the Calculator.

The Chronic Disease Cost Calculator version 2 is a downloadable tool that provides state-level estimates of medical expenditures and absenteeism costs for:

• Arthritis
• Asthma
• Cancer
• Cardiovascular diseases (congestive heart failure, coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, and other cerebrovascular disease)
• Depression
• Diabetes

Specifically, the Cost Calculator provides the following estimates for each chronic condition:

• Medical expenditures are for the entire state population (all payers and the uninsured) and separately for Medicaid, Medicare, and privately insured.
• Absenteeism costs and estimates of missing work days
• Projections of medical costs until 2020.

Due to differences in data sources and methods, the estimates may differ from other cost estimates. For a detailed explanation of Cost Calculator methodology, including how it calculates costs, refer to the Chronic Disease Cost Calculator Technical Appendix [PDF – 390 KB] . For a detailed explanation of how to use the Cost Calculator, refer to the Chronic Disease Cost Calculator User Guide [PDF – 926 KB] .