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Heart disease carries highest price tag

Heart disease ranks as the most expensive medical condition, according to a new study that analyzed health care costs and determined the 15 costliest health problems that year. The price tag for treating heart disease came to $58 billion, while the next most expensive condition – cancer – cost $46 billion, according to the study by Joel W. Cohen and Nancy A. Krauss at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The next most costly conditions to treat were trauma, costing $44 billion, and mental disorders at nearly $30 billion.

Study: Aging boomers won’t boost health-care costs as much as predicted

Baby boomers will increase Medicare and other medical expenditures as they age but not nearly as much as some analysts have feared, according to a new study. The study, which appears in the January issue of the Journal of Gerontology, suggests that by living longer, many baby boomers will pass the ages at which the most “heroic,” and hence expensive, efforts are made to prolong their lives. Once members of that generation survive into their mid-80s or so and beyond, many medical procedures will become too risky for their older bodies and will be avoided in many cases.