Healthcare spending in the United States continues its upward climb, approaching $5 trillion annually in 2023. Employer-sponsored family plans now average $27,000 per year, placing mounting pressure on households and businesses. Yet despite this spending, the country’s health outcomes remain far from world-leading. The latest OECD data show U.S. per-person spending is roughly twice the OECD average, with Switzerland and Germany trailing behind as the next highest spenders.

While chronic disease remains a major driver of these costs, a quieter—and rapidly escalating—force is straining the system: mental-health challenges, burnout, and stress-related illness. These issues siphon hundreds of billions of dollars from the U.S. economy each year through lost productivity, absenteeism, disability claims, and increased medical use. Untreated mental illness among American workers alone is projected to cost $477.5 billion in 2024, and by 2040, the cumulative economic loss could approach $14 trillion.

Major depressive disorder already imposes one of the heaviest burdens. In 2018, its economic impact reached $236........

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