N.Y. Tops Nation in Care Costs for Alzheimer's, Dementia

An Alzheimer's Association report estimated that New York topped all other U.S. states in terms of care costs for Alzheimer's disease and dementia, according to the Rome Sentinel . New York is the only state to spend more than $5 billion on dementia care, with costs reaching $5.453 billion in 2020. This marked the fifth straight year New York has led the country in Medicaid spending on dementia care, and those costs are forecast to increase nearly 16 percent by 2025 to over $6.3 billion. The report also noted that the population of New Yorkers 65 and older living with Alzheimer's disease will grow 12.2 percent by 2025, with 460,000 projected to have the disorder. Over 500,000 New Yorkers are unpaid caregivers for someone living with Alzheimer's or other dementias. Last year 586,000 people in New York were dementia caregivers, whose cumulative 774 million hours of unpaid care was valued at $14.6 billion. Alzheimer's disease also was reported as a cause of death for 3,753 New Yorkers in 2019.