According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the five costliest conditions from 1996 to 2006 were heart disease, trauma-related disorders, cancer, mental disorders and asthma (five-page PDF).
While costs are up for all five, the AHRQ reports, mental disorders has outpaced the others in terms of cost growth (from $35.2 to $57.5 billion) with trauma-related disorders also making a significant jump (from $46.2 to $68.1 billion). When ranked in terms of per-person expenditures instead of by aggregate, cancer ($5,176 in 2006) and heart disease $3,964 in 2006) were found to be most expensive while asthma ($1,059) had the lowest cost-per person but affected the most people (48.5 million).
