Cost of Alzheimer’s threatens Medicare’s future
(By – Harry Johns, thehill.com)
Medicare turns 50 this week, but if we want to help ensure it’s available for people who are now 50 when they reach retirement age, Americans of all ages should make one wish as we blow out the birthday candles: Breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s disease research. In addition to the human suffering it causes, Alzheimer’s is America’s most expensive disease — so expensive that it could bankrupt Medicare. Alzheimer’s, and other dementias, cost the country more each year than cancer or heart disease, according to The New England Journal of Medicine. As the baby boomers age, 28 million of them will develop Alzheimer’s, according to a study released last week at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, and the associated costs will skyrocket in the absence of treatments that stop or even slow the disease. Read more…