Image of male nurse pushing senior woman in a wheelchair in nursing facility

Up to a quarter of Medicare beneficiaries are spending more than what their total assets are worth in the last years of their lives due to out-of-pocket healthcare costs, researchers say.

While this does not include the value of the seniors’ primary residences, those who had to pay for the cost of dementia care were particularly hard hit, said investigators at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, analyzed data over six years from 3,209 Medicare beneficiaries.

Those with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease averaged $66,155, versus those patients with gastrointestinal disease or cancer, who spent an average of $31,069.

“Medicare provides a significant amount of healthcare coverage to people over 65, but it does not cover co-payments, deductibles, homecare services, or non-rehabilitative nursing home care,” noted the study’s lead author, Amy S. Kelley, M.D., a Mount Sinai School of Medicine professor.

The study was published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.