Dementia, a chronic degenerative disease, originates in the cerebral cortex, which accounts for approximately two-thirds of the brain’s mass. This region controls crucial sensory and cognitive functions.

The condition can develop due to an injury or occur with a comorbidity of other diseases. At the onset of dementia, the cerebral cortex begins to deteriorate. The disease is progressive and does not currently have a cure.

Symptoms can manifest as mild cognitive impairments, which are often casually disregarded as normal forgetfulness. These can include the inability to focus and perform more than one task, taking an inordinately prolonged amount of time to perform activities, forgetting recent events and conversations, misplacing items, and frequently getting lost on familiar routes.

Depending on the degree of advancement, the person’s behavior may eventually become out of control; they may become angry, agitated, disoriented, and combative. They may also come off afraid, clingy, and childlike.

Over time the disease ultimately advances, interfering with independent functioning. Those afflicted with progressive neurological conditions require monitoring in assisted living. Monitoring is often done within the confines of facilities with professionals trained to interact and care for someone dealing with degenerative dementia. There is also the option of having live in or in home care. Either way, the maintenance can be expensive.

President Barack Obama signed the National Alzheimer’s Project Act into law in January 2011. One goal of the law was to improve the ability of the US government to track the monetary costs incurred by individuals and public programs from dementia.

The economic analysis of the “Monetary Costs of Dementia in the United States,” published in The New England Journal of Medicine, forecasted the alarming increase in the related expenditures to come.

The study, led by the RAND Corporation and financed by the National Institute on Aging, found the financial burden was as high if not higher than that of heart disease and cancer.

The direct health care expenses for dementia, including nursing home care, were $109 billion in 2010. For heart disease, those costs totaled $102 billion; for cancer, $77 billion. Each case of dementia costs $41,689 to $56,290 a year.

Analysts projected both the costs and the number of those afflicted with the chronic disease would double within 30 years.

Nearly 15 percent of people 70 or older, about 3.8 million people, have dementia. Based on those figures the researchers projected that by 2040, the number could surge to 9.1 million.

By 2040, because of the population increase, it was estimated the total burdensome cost of dementia care would fall between $379 billion to $511 billion. This is a notable increase from $159 billion to $215 billion paid out in 2010.

The data used to calculate cost projections was pulled from a database called the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The longitudinal information followed 10,903 people over nearly a decade. All participants were subjected to cognitive and functional testing, establishing a baseline to measure mental decline against.

The expense associated with care for those with dementia was determined on the basis of self-reported out-of-pocket spending, the utilization of nursing home care, informal and formal care, and Medicare claims.

Dr. Richard J. Hodes, the director of the National Institute on Aging, which financed the study, expressed his concern with the findings. The New York Times quoted him saying, “I don’t know of any other disease predicting such a huge increase. And as we have the baby boomer group maturing, there are going to be more older people with fewer children to be informal caregivers for them, which is going to intensify the problem even more.”

The RAND cost estimates for current dementia care are similar to the Alzheimer’s Association’s, but the association’s future cost projections are significantly higher, an estimated $1.2 trillion in 2050. This is because the Alzheimer’s Association bases its forecast using people 65 and older with earlier stages of memory loss and Alzheimer’s – the most common type of dementia.

[Image via Shutterstock]

Dementia Care Cost Projected To More Than Double By 2040 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Health care costs will probably go up, no matter what the Supreme Court rules on Thursday, because President Obama’s health care plan is already creating changes that will affect health care permanently.

Kentucky.com reports that Gregg Nunziata, senior director at The Advisory Board, a Washington-based research and consulting firm, stated:

“Health care is changing in pretty fundamental ways aside from the Supreme Court and what the Supreme Court does.”

According to the Illinois Statehouse News, the Supreme court will present its ruling on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the court is expected to have one of three outcomes–dismiss the whole law, part of the law, or declare it constitutional.

Kentucky.com reports that Nunziata believes one reason that health care costs are going up is actually because of baby boomers entering retirement. He stated:

“They’re demanding a different kind of care and they will be living long into their golden years.”

In order to respond to this change, health officials have to look at a way to contain costs.

Illinois Statehouse News reports that if the Supreme Court rules the law completely unconstitutional, then you can expect premiums to go up, according to Jim Duffett, the executive director of the Campaign for Better Health Care. Duffett stated:

“Your premiums will go up, and the reason they’re going up is that you can only squeeze so much blood out of a turnip.”

The second option is that the Supreme Court votes to uphold the law, in which case we will see either federal income taxes raising, or the government to start a deficit spending in order to pay for the program, at least according to Jonathan Ingram, a health care policy analyst at the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think-tank.

Finally, the third option is that the court only upholds part of the law. If this is the case, Ingram believes the overturned part would be the part requiring everyone to have health insurance. Ingram stated, according to Illinois Statehouse News, that:

“I think that we’re still left with a situation where we have part of a law that is unworkable. We need to repeal the whole law. It’s already broken. It’s a one-size fits all model that doesn’t work.”

Do you think health insurance costs will continue to go up, no matter what the Supreme Court rules on Thursday?

Health Care Costs Will Go Up, No Matter What Supreme Court Rules is a post from: The Inquisitr

Health care costs continue to rise in the US, and the problem is disproportionately affecting one segment of the population- young people old enough to not be covered by their parents, but who struggle to afford the rising costs of health care.

Health care costs are certainly ever-increasing as a financial issue faced by American families, and while a partisan debate over the reason rages, it seems a growing segment of the population finds care out of its reach.

A study by bipartisan organization the Commonwealth Fund has revealed in a report released today that health care cost is impacting young people at troubling rates. Fully 41% of young adults (defined as being between the ages of 19 and 29 for the purposes of the report) declined necessary health care in the 12-month period preceding the research due to health care costs.

When including uninsured young adults in that number, it rose to 60%. Among the behaviors noted in the study due to high health care costs, young adults were found to pass on filling prescriptions, skip recommended testing and treatments, avoid visits to the doctor and neglect to seek necessary specialist care when required.

Dr. Sara Collins is vice president for affordable health insurance at the Commonwealth Fund and chief author of the survey. Collins explains:

“This reflects the high cost of medical care right now and health plans that may not cover people very well.”

Dr. Mark Fendrick, director of the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design, was more straightforward, explaining:

“There’s no question that young people have cut back on high-value screenings, doctor visits and therapies… You twist your knee playing soccer and you go to get an MRI. But if the doctor says you have to pay 50% of the cost, you’re going to be less likely to go through with it.”

36% of young adults reporting in the survey explained that health care costs caused them to struggle to pay medical debts.

Health Care Costs Prompt Many Young People to Delay or Skip Care is a post from: The Inquisitr

Health care costs for a family of 4 are expected to reach $20,000 by the end of 2012, a 7% increase when compared to the same period in 2011.

Despite fear mongering over ObamaCare health care cost increases of 7% is actually a rather small number when considering that costs have increased every year for the last 9 years. In 2002 the average cost for a family four in comparison was just $9,235, less than half of today’s overall cost.

While employers cover much of a families health care costs the amount they are offering to pay out-of-pocket has continued to decrease. For example last year the average family of four paid $3,280 out-of-pocket, an increase of 9.2% year-over-year. Along with those higher payments families are witnessing higher premiums, higher deductibles and higher co-pays.

In the meantime this year will be the fifth year in a row in which prices will rise by 7% to 8%, a time period in which income is remaining stagnant and in some cases even falling.

Families looking to take advantage of non-employer based insurance are paying even more with costs averaging $7,102 as of 2010. That self-insured cost covers only premiums and not deductibles, co-pays and other costs families are forced to pay for self-insured coverage.

Regardless of the health care coverage a family chooses to buy into, the simple fact is that they are being forced to pay more out of pocket while employers are also being asked to add extra expenses to their bankroll which in turn has a detrimental affect on employment throughout the United States.

Health Care Costs For Family Of 4 To Reach $20,000 This Year is a post from: The Inquisitr