PROVIDENCE – By 2050, the total cost of care for the 5.7 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease, 23,000 of them Rhode Island residents, is projected to increase to more than $1.1 trillion, according to the Alzheimer’s Association’s recently released 2018 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report.
The report estimated total Medicaid costs for Americans with dementia age 65 and older in Rhode Island is $438 million for 2018. In the next seven years, that figure is expected to increase 26.6 percent.
Care provided to people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia is wide-ranging and, in some instances, all-encompassing. Caregivers for people with dementia tend to provide more time-intensive and extensive assistance and experience more difficulty than caregivers of individuals without dementia.
In 2017, 53,000 Rhode Islanders provided an estimated 61 million hours of unpaid care in the form of physical, emotional and financial support – a contribution to the nation valued at $768 million. The difficulties associated with providing this level of care are estimated to have resulted in $45 million in additional health care costs for Alzheimer’s and other dementia caregivers in 2017.
Deaths from Alzheimer’s disease have more than doubled, increasing 123 percent between 2000 and 2015. For context, the number of deaths from heart disease – the No. 1 killer in America – decreased 11 percent. Within that same span of 15 years, the death rate from Alzheimer’s increased 20 percent for people age 65 to 74, increased 52 percent for people age 75 to 84 and increased 76 percent for people age 85 and older. Moreover, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 110,561 people died from Alzheimer’s disease in 2015, marking the first year the number of Alzheimer’s deaths reached hundreds of thousands.
Alzheimer’s remains the only disease among the top 10 causes of death in America that cannot be prevented, cured or slowed. The association is committed to developing a treatment by 2025 that will delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and cut the number of people who have the disease by nearly half by 2050.
In the meantime, the Rhode Island Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association provides programs and services to people living with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers, including: a 24/7 Helpline: 800-272-3900; peer- and professionally led support groups; early-stage social engagement programs; educational programs both online and in person; safety services including MedicAlert and Alzheimer’s Association Safe Return; and health care professional training on Alzheimer’s disease.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.
