A new simulation of how the costs and the course of the dementia epidemic affect U.S. families finds that neurodegenerative conditions can more than double the health care expenditures of aging and that the vast majority of that financial burden remains with families rather than government insurance programs.
A new simulation of how the costs and the course of the dementia epidemic affect U.S. families finds that neurodegenerative conditions can more than double the health care expenditures of aging and that the vast majority of that financial burden remains with families rather than government insurance programs.
The total average cost to care for a person with dementia was more than $321,000 over about five years, compared to an average cost of $137,280 to care for the same person without dementia, the simulation showed. Typically, 70 percent of the total cost burden fell on the patients and their families to cover with their own labor and out-of-pocket spending, with the balance split evenly by Medicare and Medicaid. In each year, costs of care, which ranged from the informal time and services of family members to acute care hospitalizations, reached as high as $89,000.
The findings generally agree with prior peer-reviewed estimates of dementia care costs. But lead author Eric Jutkowitz, an assistant professor in the Brown University School of Public Health, said that because the novel simulation is explicitly based on data about the clinical progression of dementia symptoms, it provides a unique tool for public health officials and other policymakers to ask and answer detailed questions about the impact of different interventions. Also unlike other estimates, Jutkowitz said, the simulation shows how the costs of dementia shift year by year as people typically transition from informal care at home to institutional care in nursing homes.
With about 5 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and more than 61 million baby boomers reaching the age of 65 or older by 2029, understanding what dementia costs families and public insurance programs is critical for planning both for households and governments alike, Jutkowitz said. But there is no comprehensive data set that documents these total costs directly. Instead, the data must be gathered together to generate estimates, including through simulation.
Read more at Brown University
Image: Eric Jutkowitz is the assistant professor in the Brown University School of Public Health. (Credit: Brown University)
