Economics of Parkinson’s Disease

There are many reasons why we should care about the cost of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Therapeutic advances have occurred in PD care, but these have come at an increased cost-to payers, providers, and patients-and some have even questioned the value of some of these advances.1 In 2001, the U.S. spent over $1.4 trillion on providing health care to its citizens, and the fastest growing components are prescription and hospital costs. The U.S. prescription drug market is a $140 billion dollar industry and has been growing at a rate of 15 to 18% each year.2 Given the aging of the population and the continued technological advances likely to occur over the next decade, managing patients with PD will likely become much more costly than it is today. At the same time, patient out-of-pocket costs will likely increase, and there will be growing pressures to contain costs and more efficiently manage care and societal resources. Economic studies in PD will allow us to know how the money is being spent and assist in determining more effective ways to spend it.