U.S. cardiovascular disease costs will triple by 2030, study says

There's a new forecast of the cost to treat heart disease in the U.S. over the next 20 years -- and it isn't pretty.

According to a study published Monday in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Assn., the annual cost to treat heart disease -- including high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and other conditions -- will triple by 2030, from $273 billion to $818 billion (in 2008 dollars).

Two overweight women walk at the 61st Montgomery County Agricultural Fair in Gaithersburg, Md., in August 2009. (Tim Sloan AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. medical expenditures are already the highest in the world, hitting 15% of gross domestic product in 2008, the authors reported.

To generate the forecast, researchers took current disease rates and applied them to population estimates suggested by census data. They assumed no major changes in treatment. Continue ►