Dementia Takes An Astronomical Financial Toll On Families, And They Say Medicare Isn’t There To Help
Medicare helps pay the costs of such things as hospitalization, surgery, chemotherapy, transplants, medications, pacemakers and other interventions, but not the "custodial care" that Alzheimer's patients need.
The San Jose Mercury News:
How Dementia Can Drain A Family’s Life Savings
If Denis Winter suffered from heart failure, cancer or almost any other deadly disease, his family could rest assured that his care would be largely covered by insurance. But Winter has Alzheimer’s disease. So the extraordinary cost of his care — $8,500 a month, or $102,000 a year — is borne entirely by his wife, Linda. It is quickly draining their lifetime of savings. (Krieger, 4/15)
In other news —
Los Angeles Times:
Too Much Sitting May Thin The Part Of Your Brain That's Important For Memory, Study Suggests
If you want to take a good stroll down memory lane, new research suggests you'd better get out of that chair more often. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have found that in people middle-aged and older, a brain structure that is key to learning and memory is plumpest in those who spend the most time standing up and moving. At every age, prolonged sitters show less thickness in the medial temporal lobe and the subregions that make it up, the study found. (Healy, 4/13)