Economic burden of multiple sclerosis to the social insurance system in Germany

Aim This study aims to calculate the cost of illness concerning multiple sclerosis (MS) from the perspective of the German social insurance system. Subjects and methods Expenditures for MS (ICD-10 GM: G35) were evaluated retrospectively for the year 2012 from the perspective of the social insurance system. Expenditures from the German statutory health insurance, the Federal statutory pension fund, and statutory long-term care insurances were calculated based on administrative claims of a large nationwide health insurance and statistics from the Federal statutory pension fund. Additionally, expenditures of the long-term care insurances were requested by standardized questionnaire. Costs were extrapolated for all health and statutory long-term care insurances. Results In the base case, extrapolated expenditures for German statutory health insurance amount to 1.062 billion €. German statutory pension funds expenses for MS were around 258.700 million € on medical rehabilitation and early retirement. Extrapolated for the whole population insured expenditures of the statutory long-term care insurances on persons with MS were approximately 372.200 million €. Conclusion This study delivered important information regarding the economic burden of MS for the social insurance system in Germany. The top-down process of data collection yielded population-based results on the cost of illness.