Widespread chronic conditions represent an unprecedented threat to the American economy and place enormous health and financial burdens on patients, their families and communities across the nation.
Today, more than 60% of Americans live with a chronic condition, 42% live with multiple chronic diseases and millions are at risk of developing a chronic condition. The prevalence of chronic conditions among the Medicare population is even higher. The United States spent almost $5 trillion on health care in 2023, and some estimates suggest that 90% of that tab is spent treating persons with one or more chronic conditions.
That would place the price tag for chronic care in excess of $4.4 trillion — or more than three times what the U.S. spent on Social Security benefits in 2023.5 And the economic burden isn’t just born on the backs of taxpayers and patients. Even though the U.S. spends more per capita on health care than all other nations, U.S. adults are significantly more likely to have multiple chronic conditions than adults in other countries — which means American companies are competing in a global economy with a sicker workforce. Simply put, the American health care system fails to promote a healthier, happier population.
And that failure is, in part, a result of a reactive, rescue-focused medical care system that has underinvested in primary care for decades.
Make Medicare Beneficiaries Healthier by Strengthening Primary Care outlines the central role that primary care must play in efforts to address chronic conditions. The brief ties decades of underinvestment in primary care to the rise in chronic conditions; it also identifies concrete solutions that can be scaled to strengthen care, providing people with the support they need to prevent and manage chronic conditions.
