Dementia Care Needs to Become a Government Priority Now

Being diagnosed with Alzheimer's is probably one of the worst feelings in the world. Unlike those who are told they have cancer, doctors can offer no hope to Alzheimer's patients that they can ever beat the disease. Once a person has Alzheimer's, there's no expectations for the future except for a gradual decline in abilities and being unable to do the things the person once enjoyed in life. Anyone in the beginning stages of dementia knows that there will be no happy endings for them, that they aren't going to have a peaceful old age, and they aren't going to continue even being themselves for much longer.

Most of us don't know a lot about Alzheimer's because people who have it aren't able to become public and champion research and funding. Even public figures we know suffered from it, such as Ronald Reagan, seem to disappear from the public eye soon after diagnosis. No one wants the world seeing them deteriorate, and by the time they become completely oblivious to their condition, it's too late to promote any cause, no matter how important. What we do know, though, is that of the top ten causes of death in the United States today, Alzheimer's is the only one that has no prevention, cure, or way to stop the progression.

More than 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's. That's one out of every eight adults. Costs are soaring, because it's estimated that Medicare pays out $3 for a dementia patient for each dollar spent on seniors without. Medicaid pays 19 times as much. In all, experts are estimating that in 2012 the federal costs, including Medicare and Medicaid, to care for dementia patients will be more than $200 billion. This number is expected to rise with the escalating number of Alzheimer's cases and the aging baby boom generation. It's possible that unless something is done quickly, it will cost $1.1 trillion dollars to care for Alzheimer's patients in the year 2050.

The president of the Alzheimer's Association contends that the U.S. federal government needs to give higher priority to funding dementia research if we are going to have any hope of controlling costs in the future. In 2011, the government invested about $502.5 million for Alzheimer's research. That compares to $823 million that was earmarked for obesity issues. Although the proportion allotted to Alzheimer's seems fairly large, it isn't enough to tackle the problems of finding preventions and cures for this devastating condition.