ABSTRACT
Many people have chronic illness or injuries ("conditions") that cause pain and suffering, limit their ability to work effectively either in the market or in the home, and people with multiple chronic conditions have very high health care costs. Chronic conditions are very costly to treat. The rate of health care spending rises exponentially with the number of chronic conditions, and for a given number of chronic conditions, costs also rise with age, but not as dramatically as with the number of chronic conditions. The prevalence of chronic conditions rises with age, and hence will invariably become more important in the US and other developed nations as the age profile changes over time. Many chronic conditions can be controlled well, and their rate of progress slowed considerably, through the use of appropriate prescription and non-prescription drugs. In some cases, simple anti-inflammatory drugs significantly help the patient.
