Breaking News: $82.2 Billion and Rising, Parkinson’s Economic Burden Toll Arrives 10 Years Early

🧠 What will you learn in this article?

This article explains the results from a recent study on the 2024 economic burden of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and atypical parkinsonism (AP) in the U.S. Key highlights include:

The economic burden of Parkinson’s and AP has grown faster than researchers previously estimated.
$23.8 billion is attributable to direct medical costs, including hospitalizations, outpatient care and medications.
Indirect and non-medical costs, including missed work, unpaid care partner time effort and home/vehicle modifications were estimated to be $58.4 billion total.

Parkinson's disease cost the U.S. $82.2 billion

The economic burden of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and atypical parkinsonism (AP) has grown faster than researchers previously estimated, reaching nearly $82.2 billion in 2024. Several Parkinson’s organizations, including the Parkinson’s Foundation, and industry partners backed and reported these findings in a new study.

This new study, The Economic Burden of Parkinson’s and Atypical Parkinsonism in the United States, builds upon similar research conducted previously on 2017 data, offering valuable updates and insights into how the economic burden has changed in the last seven years.

Read the press release

Key findings from the study include:

There were an estimated 1.1 million people with PD living in the U.S. in 2024
$23.8 billion is attributable to direct medical costs, including hospitalizations, outpatient care and medications.
$58.4 billion reflects indirect and non-medical costs, including lost income, disability and unpaid caregiving.

"It is alarming to see the societal cost to treat PD continue to grow. This new study further underscores the extreme financial burden to not only society, but to the families of those living with PD. Parkinson’s remains one of the most expensive diseases to care for yet the U.S. government invests less than 1% of this cost in searching for better treatments and cures through research. Disease-modifying breakthroughs are within reach, that’s why together with the Parkinson’s community, the Parkinson’s Foundation is urging for an increased investment of at least $600 million annually for Parkinson’s research at NIH," said James Beck, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at the Parkinson's Foundation.

Direct Medical Costs of PD Remain Steady

To calculate direct medical costs attributed to PD, the study authors compared average medical expenses by those with PD against a similar population (age, gender, ethnicity, insurance coverage) without PD. The difference between the two amounts was determined to be the excess medical cost due to PD.

In 2024, the average direct costs of PD were $18,859 per person across all age groups. These amounts are slightly lower than the average direct cost calculated in 2017, which was $24,439 per person at that time.

However, this difference is primarily due to increased medical expenses for the non-PD comparison group, possibly because of new and popular high-cost treatments such as GLP-1 agonists. Overall medical costs have increased 17% in the past 7 years, and the costs of PD may have only grown slightly slower than that.

Non-Medical and Indirect Costs Have Significantly Grown Since 2017

While direct medical costs of PD have remained relatively steady in the past seven years, estimates of non-medical and indirect costs have grown nearly twice as much in that time.

Non-medical costs related to PD, such as daily non-medical care and home or vehicle modifications, have more than doubled in the past decade, with the average person with PD paying $15,614 in non-medical expenses in 2024.

This dramatic increase is due in part to the study authors identifying new major contributors to economic burden, including housekeeping services, financial and legal planning services and accessible home purchase expenses. They also classified out-of-pocket expenses not covered by insurance such as counseling, supplies and therapeutic activities as costing people with PD on average $4,675 per person in 2024.

Indirect costs include the loss of wages or earnings due to the reduced ability to work attributable to PD (reduced hours, sick time spent, etc.). These costs increased 69% since 2017, going from $7,387 to $12,554 per person per year.

Taken altogether and including indirect cost burdens on care partners, the non-medical costs attributable to PD were $40,290 per person in 2024, up 58% from the 2017 amount of $25,558. This amount is greater than similar costs of other conditions such as diabetes, which had reported an indirect cost per person with diabetes of $4,500 in 2022.

The U.S. Population of People with PD and Their Care Partners is on the Rise

Parkinson's disease cost care partners $8.3 billion

In 2017, the study authors estimated that the number of people with PD in the U.S. was 1.04 million. The 2018 Parkinson’s Foundation Parkinson’s Prevalence Project estimated that 1.2 million in the U.S. would be living with PD in 2030. This new study estimates the number of people with PD in the U.S. in 2024 to be 1.1 million, with the country very likely to reach the 2030 estimate years earlier than anticipated.

The study also found that:

Nearly 40% of people with PD receive unpaid care from a care partner, and people with PD have an average of 2.3 care partners. This suggests that the number of PD care partners in the U.S. is nearly equal to the number of people living with PD.
20% of the care partners reported taking early retirement or reduced work hours due to their care provision.
34% of the care partners reported missing or cancelling their own routine health care visits for similar reasons.

Why is this study important?

In 2019, researchers projected that the economic burden of PD would not reach $79 billion until 2037. However, the U.S. has already hit that mark. Current projections assume incidence holds steady — if it continues to rise, the total economic burden will rise faster than currently projected.

Understanding and reevaluating the annual economic toll on people with PD, their care partners and the government strengthen the case for increased federal investment in Parkinson’s research and care. The Parkinson’s Foundation policy and advocacy priorities reflect these economic burden findings, as the Foundation is currently working to:

Increase federal research funding, including $600 million a year in National Institutes of Health-funded Parkinson's research.
Promote prevention strategies, including efforts to reduce exposure to environmental risks tied to Parkinson’s including chemicals like paraquat and trichloroethylene (TCE).
Implement the National Parkinson’s Project — a coordinated federal initiative to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.

Take Action. Visit our Advocacy Center to support Parkinson’s policy priorities

Knowing the economic burden of Parkinson’s also allows us to better serve people with PD and their families with programs to help them live better with the disease, touching on areas they are most concerned about and where we can have the most impact.

This study was sponsored by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), with support from the Parkinson’s Foundation, industry groups (ACADIA and AbbVie), CurePSP and the American Parkinson Disease Association.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation, with support from the Parkinson’s Foundation and other community organizations and industry partners, used data from public databases including Medicare, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Census Bureau. Several Parkinson’s organizations, including the Parkinson’s Foundation, assisted with data collection through sharing a survey across websites, social media networks and email communications.