Dementia Care Costs Expected to Double by 2014, More Expensive than Treatments for Heart Disease or Cancer

Dementia is a crippling disease where memory loss can indicate problems with two or more brain functions, impairing the judgment and language of those suffering. A chronic disease associated with aging, dementia care costs the United States around $159 billion annually, which is more than treating either heart disease or cancer. And to make matters worse, according to a new report in the New England Journal of Medicine, dementia could even cost as much as $215 billion annually.

Though statistics show that treating dementia has relatively small medical costs, ranging between 16 and 25 percent of the total cost, nursing home bills can be close to $14,000 per patient per year and home health aides run bills of an additional $5,700 per patient, combining to a total of $109 billion.

And unfortunately, the bills keep coming. Informal care can rack up costs between $50 billion and $106 billion once the cost of care and passed-up paychecks have been accounted for.

Dementia is characterized by symptoms that may prevent people from handling every day activities, from losing track of medications and finances ranging to the inability to dress or bathe oneself. Research from the Health and Retirement Study estimates that 14.7 percent of Americans over the age or 70 suffer from dementia, and if present trends continue, the total cost of care may double by 2040.

"It's going to swamp the system," said Dr. Ronald C. Petersen, who is chairman of the advisory panel to the federal government's recently created National Alzheimer'sPlan , according to The New York Times.