Cases of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease have reached
epidemic proportions and it is now considered to be the number one
public health crisis of the 21st century.
Experts expressed concerns over how the costs of care for Alzheimer's
were draining the financial resources of both Medicare and Medicaid,
particularly the costs to cover Alzheimer's claims, which were nearly
three times higher than the average claims. The cost to Medicare
is predicted to climb to 55 percent reaching $50 billion in less
than 10 years. The cost to Medicaid doesn't look much better, as
it is estimated to rise by 80 percent to $33 billion.
An analysis of 30,000 Medicare claims showed an increase in Alzheimer's
disease especially among the African American population where there
was a significant jump of 460 percent.
The Rise of Alzheimer's Cases
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Baby boomers, who are considered at high risk of developing
Alzheimer's, are expected to reach 1 million a year
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The number of people with Alzheimer's is predicted to go from
today's estimate of 4.5 million to nearly 16 million by the
year 2050
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Current national costs for providing care to Alzheimer's patients:
$100 billion
Study on Costs to Medicare for Alzheimer's
Patients
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Costs were analyzed over a 15-year period after a person was
diagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease
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1,600 participants took part in the study
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Components of care that were evaluated included years of institutionalized
care, hours of paid and informal care and discounted costs of
paid community, institutional and medical care
Results of the Study
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Due to having a longer life expectancy rates, the average cost
of care for a woman with Alzheimer's was around $16,327 per
year compared to the cost for a man with Alzheimer's, which
was an estimated $9,710 per year
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Cost for care in the final stages of the disease were a great
deal higher than the costs for the initial stages of the disease
Because of the catastrophic costs and the number of people predicted
to develop Alzheimer's, researchers expressed the need for more
funding for research with hopes that it will provide them with knowledge
on less expensive treatments for Alzheimer's.
As a way of reaching this goal The Alzheimer's
Association came up with the following recommendations:
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A request for $1 billion in annual federal funding to be used
for Alzheimer's research
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Guiding Americans to think about Alzheimer's differently and
focus on prevention techniques such as lifestyle and improving
brain health
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Incorporating a chronic health care benefit into the Medicare
program to cover the exorbitant costs of care associated to
dementia and other related conditions
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Improving the quality of care and support services available
to people with Alzheimer's
EurekAlert
July 19, 2004
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