The cost of providing healthcare in Sweden in 1991 to persons over 65 years with moderate to severe dementia was SEK 30 billion. The cost of providing healthcare in Sweden in 1991 to persons over 65 years with moderate to severe dementia was SEK 30 billion. A recent Canadian study is instructive as it charts the dramatic increase in the cost of dementia care as the disease becomes more severe. As might be expected, the major cost component is institutional care, accounting for 84 percent of the cost. Few countries have begun to plan for the growth of services required for an ageing population, much less the systems by which people will be able to apply for, and receive, help.
None are ready for the influx of financial, legal and policy issues that dementia poses.
Criteria for eligibility and service provision differs among EU member states. Responsibility fgor the cost of care may be divided amongst the patients themselves, their families, insurance companies, local and national governments and charitable organisations. Support may be means-tested or universal nad may include care provision or income supplementation. The families themselves often beocme entangled in the bureaucratric complexities of eligibility and entitlement. Although there is no specific legislation regarding people with dementia in most Member States, there are laws relevant to individual rights.