Recently, a study revealed the cost to care for people with dementia is comparable to the cost of caring for someone with cancer and could be higher. Over the next 30 years, the number of people with dementia will more than double. In 2010, over $109 billion was spent on dementia health care. According to the RAND study, in one year the cost to treat a person with dementia is about $41,000 to $56,000. The study used information collected over a ten-year period on 11,000 people from the Health and Retirement Study database. Many researchers are concerned that the country is not ready for the drastic increase in the number of people and the cost of dementia.
See Pam Belluck, Dementia Care Cost Is Projected to Double by 2040, The New York Times, Apr. 3, 2013.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.
