While current costs of medical care for heart disease are around 273 billion dollars per year, that figure will skyrocket to 818 billion dollars by 2030, the study said.
The findings came from an expert panel that estimated future costs based on current disease rates, and expanded those costs according to projections from US census data about approaching shifts in the population.
The researchers assumed that no new discoveries would be made between now and 2030 to stem the tide of heart disease, said the study published in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association.
"Despite the successes in reducing and treating heart disease over the last half century, even if we just maintain our current rates, we will have an enormous financial burden on top of the disease itself," said Paul Heidenreich, chair of the AHA expert panel that issued the statement.
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