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March 9th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda THURSDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) — Caring for people with
Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia will cost the United
States about $200 billion this year, a total that includes $140 billion
paid by Medicare and Medicaid, new statistics released Thursday
show.
Medicaid payments are 19 times higher for seniors with Alzheimer’s and
other dementias and Medicare payments for the conditions are nearly three
times higher, compared to payments for other patients, according to the
“2012 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures” report from the Alzheimer’s
Association.
Nearly 30 percent of people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias are
covered by both Medicare and Medicaid, compared to 11 percent of people
without the conditions. This means that Medicare and Medicaid costs
associated with Alzheimer’s and other dementias will continue to rise as
baby boomers age, the report said.
“Alzheimer’s is already a crisis, and it’s growing worse with every
year,” Harry Johns, president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association, said
in an association news release.
“While lives affected and care costs soar, the cost of doing nothing
is far greater than acting now. Alzheimer’s is a tremendous cost-driver
for families and for Medicare and Medicaid. This crisis simply cannot be
allowed to reach its maximum scale because it will overwhelm an already
overburdened system,” Johns added.
Most people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias have at least one
other serious chronic health problem, and Alzheimer’s acts as a “cost
multiplier” on these other diseases, according to the report.
For example, the statistics showed a senior with diabetes and
Alzheimer’s costs Medicare 81 percent more than a senior with diabetes
alone. And a senior with cancer and Alzheimer’s costs Medicare 53 percent
more than a senior with cancer alone.
Mental impairment in patients with Alzheimer’s and other dementias
complicates the management of care, resulting in more and longer hospital
stays, the authors noted in the news release.
“This disease must be addressed on parallel tracks: supporting research
to find treatments that cure, delay or prevent the disease, and offering
assistance and support to the more than 5 million Americans now living
with Alzheimer’s and their more than 15 million caregivers,” Johns
said.
“This is what the National Alzheimer‘s Plan is all about. Caring for
people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias costs America $200 billion in
just one year. By committing just 1 percent of that cost, $2 billion, to
research, it could begin to put the nation on a path to effective
treatments and, ultimately, a cure,” he noted.
The report also said that 800,000 people with Alzheimer’s — one out of
seven — live alone, and that up to half of them do not have an
identifiable caregiver. That puts them at increased risk for such health
problems as missed or delayed diagnosis, malnutrition and untreated
medical conditions. They’re also at increased risk for wandering away from
home unattended and for accidental death.
Alzheimer’s patients who live alone tend to be older, female and have
lower levels of cognitive (memory and thinking) impairment, the report
noted. However, they still face major challenges in performing daily tasks
such as managing money and medications, shopping and preparing meals.
“Advance planning is important for everyone, particularly for
individuals who have Alzheimer’s or other dementias; but for the
population that has Alzheimer’s and lives alone, future planning is
absolutely critical,” Beth Kallmyer, vice president of constituent
services for the Alzheimer’s Association, said in the news release.
According to the association, an estimated 5.4 million people have
Alzheimer’s disease, and 15.2 million of their friends and family members
provide 17.4 billion hours of unpaid care.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has
more about Alzheimer’s disease.
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