Figure 3.

The model parameters (as sketched in Figure 2) were estimated within the 20-month period before and after onset of each of the 12 chronic conditions: (a) cost of initial comorbidity in U.S. dollars, that is, the mean cost per month per capita before onset, (b) cost of onset in U.S. dollars, that is, the mean expenditures in the month of onset, (c) population recovery rate in 1/month, that is, the speed of approaching new steady-state in medical expenditures, and (d) cost of acquired comorbidity in U.S. dollars, that is, an excess in expenditures in a new steady-state compared to those before disease onset. Horizontal bars denote the standard errors of parameter estimates obtained using the nonlinear least squares.