Poverty: Information Sharing Corner

	United Way of Southeast Louisiana
	Thought Leaders Volume 2.2

1/15/2016

ALICE Briefing

ALICE Briefing

January 27, 2016

1:30pm

United Way

2515 Canal St., New Orleans

Parking in rear of building or

corner of Canal and N. Dorgenois

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If you have any articles or research to share with the team, please email Mary Ambrose .

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Greetings Thought Partners,

2016 has started with a bang! We have a new Governor that has expanded Medicaid in Louisiana, increasing access to quality, affordable health care to 350,000 people in our state. As you know, this is something United Way SELA has championed in our Legislative Agenda for the past couple of years and we are so excited to see this finally happen. Many of you may recall that this was a major topic of conversation in our Thought Partner Convening. So, I know we all share this sense of accomplishment for our state.

As we think of Medicaid expansion, please reflect on the articles attached and think of the implications for change, especially for those suffering with dementia. I want to point out the study findings f rom Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York; University of California, Los Angeles, California; and Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire that demonstrates how a medical condition like dementia can move a family into poverty. The study looked at patients on Medicare. The average total cost of care for a person with dementia over those five years was $287,038. For a patient who died of heart disease it was $175,136. For a cancer patient it was $173,383. Medicare paid almost the same amount for patients with each of those diseases - close to $100,000 - but dementia patients had many more expenses that were not covered. On average, the out-of-pocket cost for a patient with dementia was $61,522 - more than 80 percent higher than the cost for someone with heart disease or cancer. The reason is that dementia patients need caregivers to watch them, help with basic activities like eating, dressing and bathing, and provide constant supervision to make sure they do not wander off or harm themselves. None of those costs were covered by Medicare.

As we watch the shift in population trends, we should note that according to the CDC, Public Health and Aging: Trends in Aging - United States and Worldwide Report, "In the United States, the proportion of the population aged >65 years is projected to increase from 12.4% in 2000 to 19.6% in 2030 (3). The number of persons aged >65 years is expected to increase from approximately 35 million in 2000 to an estimated 71 million in 2030 (3), and the number of persons aged >80 years is expected to increase from 9.3 million in 2000 to 19.5 million in 2030. As U.S. adults live longer, the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease, which doubles every 5 years after age 65, also is expected to increase (7). Approximately 10% of adults aged >65 years and 47% of adults aged >85 years suffer from this degenerative and debilitating disease (7).

This will mean that the lowest income or ALICE families in our community will be faced with the dilemma of how to care for their love ones without sinking deeper into poverty. I welcome your thoughts. Let's continue to share our thoughts with one another.

Best,

Mary Ambrose, LMSW

Senior Vice President, Community Impact

United Way of Southeast Louisiana

Information Corner

	Costs for Dementia Care Far Exceeding Other Diseases, Study Finds Gina Kolata / The New York Times Three diseases, leading killers of Americans, often involve long periods of decline before death. Two of them - heart disease and cancer - usually require expensive drugs, surgeries and hospitalizations. The third, dementia, has no effective treatments to slow its course. Read more.
	Only in America: Four years into life, poor kids are already an entire year behind Roberto A. Ferdman / The Washington Post Wealthy parents aren't just able to send their kids to top pre-schools-they can also purchase the latest learning technology and ensure their children experience as many museums, concerts and other cultural experiences as possible. Low-income parents, on the other hand, don't have that opportunity. Read more.
	Report: College graduates with high debt face long-term health issues Matthew Lynch / The Edvocate According to a new study via Gallup.com, college graduates "who took on the highest amounts of student debt, $50,000 or more, are less likely than their fellow graduates who did not borrow for college to be thriving in four of five elements of well-being: purpose, financial, community, and physical." Read more.

United Way of Southeast Louisiana

Main Office: 2515 Canal Street New Orleans, LA 70119 |