N recent years a variety of studies and I figures relating to the cost of illnesses have been generated in the health field. The methods used range from broad statements of costs with no apparent bases, to detailed, sophisticated economic analyses. The costs are estimated in gross terms, in some instances, to justify categorical program expenditures by emphasizing the economic impact on society of the disease in question. In other cases, the cost estimates have been developed within the rigorous framework of cost-benefit analysis, in which the present cost of a disease serves as a measure of potential benefits derived from programs to control or prevent the disease. Examples of such detailed cost-benefit studies include those by Fein and Weisbrod, and, more recently, Klarman, Mushkin, and the author.1 In each of these studies, the calculation of the direct medical care expenditures and the value of losses in production output is performed systematically and more or less laboriously. This paper outlines the problems involved in measuring direct and indirect costs and presents a framework for calculating single-year costs of illness, disability, and death by major category of illness. Presented are data on selected types of health expenditures in 1963 by diagnosis, as well as estimates of total man-years lost and productivity losses resulting from morbidity and mortality in 1963 for each diagnostic category. The final section of this paper deals with suggestions for use of these data.