Alzheimer’s in Michigan: The coming storm | Bridge Magazine

Alzheimer’s in Michigan: The coming storm | Bridge Magazine
"KENTWOOD—Just about every morning and evening, Wayne Goates makes his way to visit the woman he fell hard for in college. 
From all outward signs, she has no idea who he is.

“The commitment and the romance is still there,” Goates says of his wife, Kristie, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 13 years ago. 

Conservatively, Goates figures he’s put in at least 20,000 hours tending to his wife in the years since her diagnosis. 

She has been in a dementia care wing of a Kentwood nursing home nearly seven years, at $6,500 a month, with the total bill now running past $400,000. 

“...This can be devastating financially. 
For some people, it absolutely overwhelms them.”

In a state that’s aging faster than the rest of the nation, that’s likely to be the case for alarming numbers of aging Michigan baby boomers – born between 1946 and 1964 – and their families.

...In 2018, Alzheimer’s patients in Michigan accounted for more than $6 billion in Medicaid and Medicare charges, and another $7.4 billion in uncompensated care from more than 500,000 family members of Alzheimer’s patients.

...The share of residents older than 85 is projected to more than double between 2015 and 2045.

...“Michigan is not ready for this. I don’t think anybody is ready for what is to come,” said Jennifer Lepard, president and chief executive officer of the Alzheimer's Association-Greater Michigan Chapter..."

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