ABSTRACT
There are many reasons why we should care about the cost of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Although therapeutic advances have occurred in PD care, these have come at an increased cost-to payers, providers, and patients-and there have been questions regarding the value of some of these advances.1 In 2006, the United States spent over 2.1 trillion dollars providing healthcare to its citizens and this number is projected to grow to 4.3 trillion by 2017.2 The 2007 rate of growth in national health expenditures was the slowest since 1998 and 0.6 of a percentage point lower than the 6.7% growth in 2006, with the deceleration attributable mostly to greater substitution of brand name medications with generic equivalents, slower growth in prescription drug prices, and growing consumer safety concerns.3 However, out-of-pocket spending increased by 39.4% per person over the 10 year period, primarily among people with multiple chronic diseases.4
