The Cost of Cardiovascular Disease
Age-related disease places a huge financial burden on individuals and their caregivers; even the need for caregivers arises only because aging produces disability. Even only considering cardiovascular disease, the largest contribution to human mortality, the costs are enormous. This is a point often made by advocates arguing for greater institutional funding of ways to treat aging. Present levels of funding for research and development of means to reduce age-related disease are very low in comparison to the massive ongoing costs that result from age-related disease. It makes little sense for this to be the case in an age of rapid progress in biotechnology, but nonetheless it is the case that vastly more funding is devoted to novel approaches in war, sports, and video games than towards improving medical technology.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) cost the EU an estimated €282 billion in 2021, according to late breaking research presented at ESC Congress 2023. Health and long-term care accounted for €155 billion (55%) of these costs, equalling 11% of EU health expenditure. "CVD had a significant impact on the EU27 economy, costing a total of €282 billion in 2021. That's equivalent to 2% of Europe's GDP and is significantly more than the entire EU budget itself, used to fund research, agriculture, infrastructure and energy across the Union. By choosing not to invest in cardiovascular disease we are simply deferring the cost. This data forces us to ask the question: do we invest in cardiovascular health today or be forced to pay more at a later stage?"
This was the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the economic costs of CVD to society in the EU since 2006. It is the first study to use Europe-wide patient registries and surveys rather than relying on assumptions and, unlike previous reports, includes the costs of long-term social care. The current analysis provides estimates of the societal economic costs of CVD for the 27 members states of the EU in 2021, including 1) health and social care; 2) informal care; and 3) productivity losses. The breakdown includes: €130 billion for healthcare (46%); €25 billion for social care (9%); €79 billion for informal care (28%); €15 billion in productivity losses due to illness/disability (5%); €32 billion in productivity losses due to premature death (12%). The total cost equated to €630 per EU citizen, ranging from €381 in Cyprus to €903 in Germany.
Healthcare included primary care, emergency care, hospital care, outpatient care and medications, while social care included long-term institutionalised care, and care at home. The main contributor was hospital care, which cost €79 billion, representing 51% of CVD-related care costs. CVD medications accounted for €31 billion (20%) of care costs, followed by residential nursing care homes at €15 billion (9%). Informal care costs included the work or leisure time, valued in monetary terms, that relatives and friends gave up to provide unpaid care. Relatives and friends provided 7.5 billion hours of unpaid care for patients with CVD, amounting to €79 billion across the EU.