Abstract: Objective： To provide scientific evidence for medical insurance and health policies allocating the limited health resources in China. Methods: Based on the data of the national household survey by the State Council Pilot Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance Evaluation from Nov.2007 to Nov.2011, a twostep model and the human capital method were used to estimate the economic burden of five major chronic diseases among urban residents in China. According to the economic burden, the relative economic risk (relative risk, RR) and adjusted RR were calculated. The five chronic diseases were hypertension, cardiovascular, diabetes, arthritis or rheumatism and chronic lung diseases. Results: More than 50% of the residents with these five chronic diseases were the over 65-year-old and retired. 90% of the residents with these five chronic diseases had medical insurance except the residents with chronic lung diseases. Average co-pay from the outpatient department and the pharmacy was more than 60%, and about 50% from the inpatient department. Annual total cost per capita was the highest 8 954.29 Yuan among the residents with cardiovascular disease and the second highest 8 914.36 Yuan among the residents with diabetes. The adjusted RR of the residents with cardiovascular and diabetes were greater than 1, respectively 1.36 and 1.15. Conclusion: The retired take up the largest percentage of population with chronic diseases, and the influence of the major five chronic diseases is more serious in north-west China. The main expenditure is from the outpatient department and the pharmacy, in which the availability of drugs reimbursed needs to be improved. The patients with cardiovascular and diabetes experience both higher economic burden and economic risk.

Key words: Chronic disease, Economics, Cost of illness, Urban population, Economic risk