1 in 3 Seniors Dies with Alzheimer’s or Other Dementia

By Marion Algier – AskMarion

With the onset of the ObamaCare debacle which will take us to a single-payer socialized medicine system, where one of the architects and Obama’s Health Rationer-in-Chief, Zeke Emanuel, is pro-death panels and the creator of the Complete Lives System, under which a panel (rationing board) of administrators, not doctors nor healthcare trained practitioners (Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), will make the decision of how funds are spent and who will get care (equaling death panels)… patients, family members and caretakers of the largest growing incurable disease, Alzheimer’s-Dememtia (AD), should be very worried!

NBC – Bay Area/THITW: A new report from the Alzheimer’s Association has some shocking and sobering statistics on the disease that has no cure.

Right now, some 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s, and that number is expected to dramatically increase as the “baby boomer” generation ages.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association 2013 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts & Figures report, one in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or other form of dementia.

The report says dementia is the second-largest contributor to death, after heart failure.

The emotional cost to families is obvious, but the spiraling costs of care are also expected to skyrocket.

Alzheimer’s symptoms include memory loss, poor judgment and changes in thinking and behavior. It is a progressive disease where the dementia symptoms worsen over time.

Harry Johns, President and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association, points out that there are no Alzheimer’s survivors. He says if you have the disease, you either die from it or you die with it.

“Now we know that 1 in 3 seniors dies with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia. Urgent, meaningful action is necessary, particularly as more and more people age into greater risk for developing a disease that today has no cure and no way to slow or stop its progression,” Johns said.

Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and is the only leading cause of death without a way to prevent, cure or slow its progression.

Alzheimer’s is one of those diseases that not only impacts the patient, but also puts a huge burden on families.

Last year, there were more than 15 million caregivers who provided more than 17 billion hours of unpaid care valued at $216 billion, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. That doesn’t take into account the personal toll on the caregiver themselves both medically and emotionally. In fact, 72% of senior caregivers die before the family member or patient they are taking care of.

When it comes to paid healthcare, the numbers are just as high. According to the new report the total payments for health and long-term care services for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias will total $203 billion this year.

2013 Health and Long-Term Care Services Breakdown

• Medicare $107 billion
• Medicaid $35 billion
• Out-of-Pocket Costs $34 billion
• Other Sources (HMO, Private Insurance) $27 billion
• Total $203 billion

Video: Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures 2013

Many long-term care facilities and assisted living centers already won’t take AD patients on MediCare and MediCal.  Funds for help with in-home care is drying up, including for Veterans. 

ObamaCare expert and author of Beating Obamacare (Kindle), Betsy McCaughey, recently said: Obamacare was designed to vastly expand single payer Medicaid by eviscerating Medicare. McCaughey also recommends that babyboomers who are a bit too young for social security and Medicare related programs line-up their primary care physicians, internists, etc. now. Many physicians are leaving medicine altogether and many others will not be accepting any new MediCaid, MediCare or MediCal patients, especially if ObamaCare is not repealed or defunded.

Even progressive liberal Howard Dean recently had to admit that Sarah Palin was right and that ObamaCare has a ‘rationing’ panel, after all!  And who will those panels affect the most?… the elderly (Seniors), those with special needs, and certainly people who have chronic expensive diseases with no cures like Alzheimer’s and other Dementias!  We recently got our first glimpse of how this will work when cold-hearted HHS Secretary Sebelius denied a young girl a lifesaving lung transplant — forcing the girl’s family to look to the courts for help. (And yes, that is the same Kathleen Sebelius who said she doesn’t work for you!)  Her family won that battle in court, the transplant was successful and she is now doing fine, but we know that this will not work for everyone or even most people in the future if ObamaCare prevails.  And once the system is in place who is to say that not only the elderly, persons with special needs and those suffering from expensive chronic diseases and conditions will not get the surgeries or level of care they need.  How about people who disagree with the powers that be?  Or any undesirable in the eyes of those on the IPAB panel? 

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