Bearing the Financial Burden of Alzheimer’s

When Tom Allen’s wife received a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2010, the Minneapolis resident had to make some tough decisions. He quit his $60,000-a-year position running a nonprofit that served the homeless to take a $12-an-hour job as a janitor in the building they lived in, so he could keep an eye on his wife during the day. “I was concerned about her safety being alone,” he says. But Allen had bigger worries than whether Julie had poured gravel down the garbage disposal again or left the iron on: “I was bleeding money out of my retirement account,” he says. “I kept wondering, Are we going to end up on the streets?”

One in nine Americans age 65 or older has Alzheimer’s—a total of 5.2 million people—and that number is expected to triple by 2050. Patients typically live 8 to 10 years after diagnosis, and families can quickly exhaust their savings caring for them. The cost of an assisted living facility averages $43,200 a year, while a semiprivate room at a nursing home runs $80,300, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.