Dementia Costs Burn Through 1% of Global GDP, Will Increase

businessweek ^ | 092110 | - Robert Preidt

[the invisib1e hand]

The World Alzheimer Report 2010 found that the cost of Alzheimer's and related dementias is about 1 percent of the world's gross domestic product and that if dementia care were a country, it would be the world's 18th largest economy, ranking between Turkey and Indonesia.

[the invisib1e hand]

Here's the "complete lives" curve, which shows your odds of getting a "medical intervention" -- that is, treatement -- at a certain age. So you see, the older you get, the lower your odds. It's a lottery, you see, and the government controls lotteries.

Now then, an intelligent question might be, "hmmm...is dementia something that older people tend to get?" And of course we all know that the answer is, "yes." And the next question might be, "doesn't this indicate a potential conflict of interest, when the government has set up the lottery so that older people are less likely to get treatment, and now they're telling us how expensive it is, and we all know that everyone wants the budget reduced. Shouldn't that make older people a bit uneasy?" And another question might be, "I notice the media is pushing the "dementia is an epidemic theme. Could that be propaganda?"

The Complete Lives System Curve. Heads, you win...

[the invisib1e hand]

related from bloomberg.

Every from Tim Geithner on down will just say, "knock 'em off!"

[a fool in paradise]

that if dementia care were a country, it would be the world's 18th largest economy

Really?

When stacked along side of "drug abuse care", "STD care", "heart disease care", "diabetes care", "cancer care"?

How many OTHER diseases can be called a "nationality"?

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

1%? The Democrats have cost us a lot more than that!

[Truth is a Weapon]

First you define the problem. Next the solution will be proposed.

Did anyone else think of the movie “Logan’s Run”?

[Leo Carpathian]

yeah, too many dementitated RATs and RINOs, globul 1% eh?

[rhombus]

Under Obamacare dementia will be treated by tying the senior to the bed and giving them drugs until the cost curve is bent and the bed is vacant.

[haywoodwebb]

"Just take your pain pill and be quiet about it . . ."

--BHO
mm, mm, mmm!

[the Real fifi]

Eat turmeric—it has demonstrated cancer fighting properties and is now believed to fight out and perhaps even ameliorate the damage of Alzheimers.

[the invisib1e hand]

According to one study, "it is generally diagnosed in people over age 65."

OK, so what you do is go back to that "Complete Lives System" graph that we got courtesy of Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel's public-service-oriented scholarship, and you find 65 years along the bottom, horizontal line, and then you find where that is on the curve, and then you trace back to the vertical line on the left (the "Y" axis) and you try to guess what your odds of getting treatment under this system are -- because they don't tell you exactly, do they? But you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that it's awfully close to "zero."

And if you dig into that study, you'll find that the incidence of Alzheimer's increases as you get older; and on the Compelete Lives Rationing Graph, the odds of getting a treatment decrease as you get older.

And you can thank Team Obama for this shipwreck-about-to-happen.

[rahbert]

and cinnamon.

[MNDude]

the solutions are simple...either euthanize the older people or do lots of research on aborted babies to find a cure \sarc

[Vermont Lt]

Just get in the van and we will go for a little ride. Don’t mind the minor leak in the exhaust. It wont be a bother at all after a few minutes.

And just think...they have all the Dodge vans they need. Just call up Detroit and have them made.

[the invisib1e hand]

Just get in the van and we will go for a little ride.

RIP, Theresa Marie Schindler-Schiavo.

[the invisib1e hand]

the logic is very easy to follow. if human lives are evaluated according to cost, then only the "productive" can be allowed to live.

If the cost of sustaining a human life becomes a matter of the budget of the government, as it does under a government medical system, then the government not only has a vested interest in eliminating the net costly, but has an obligation to do so, in order to reduce its operating costs as much as possible. "Non-essentials" will be the first to go. All the talk is just rationalization to condition people to the inevitable.

If the government has, by constitution, recognized the right to life of all human beings, than the conflict of interest that government healthcare introduces is intolerable. For this reason, if no other, the bill should never have passed.

But I guess nobody thought of that.

[Dr.Deth]

... not to mention 92% of US GDP.

[Buckeye McFrog]

the Logan’s Run theory of Economics...

[MortMan]

Dementia costs would be much less if we didn’t keep reelecting these sick mother truckers to congress! ;-P

[MrB]

I tell you one thing that will never be rationed -

AIDS treatment.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"Did anyone else think of the movie “Logan’s Run”?"

No. But now I'm thinking of Jenny Agutter naked.