Saturday, August 26, 2017

How an eye test could detect Alzheimer's

Image Source: NEGERIATRICS

Have you seen the stories about new tests for Alzheimer’s Disease that supposedly are just around the corner? The claims: A simple blood test, an eye test, even a smell test that could show whether you are at high risk for Alzheimer’s decades before you develop symptoms. They are promising, scary, and--so far--premature.

Sadly, we’ve seen this movie before. Like most Alzheimer’s-related science, there turns out to much less to these stories than their promoters claim. For years, we’ve heard about the drug cures, or the brain-training products, diets, or exercise programs that can delay dementia. None have panned out. And it is far too early to know if cheap, accurate, and non-invasive early testing will either.

If one or more does prove reliable, it will raise important ethical, medical, and financial questions that we have yet to answer even though the consequences of Alzheimer’s testing have been quietly debated for a long time. Here is a piece I wrote seven years ago on the issue.

Long-term care insurance

One consequence: An accurate, widely-available test to detect Alzheimer’s years before a person shows symptoms will destroy the market for voluntary long-term care insurance. Why? Because people who test positive will be far more likely to want to buy insurance than those who don’t.  And because dementia is the single most important condition that affects people who go to claim, premiums would explode. Already, half of long-term care insurance claims are for people with dementia.

If insurance companies have access to those test results, they will refuse to insure those who test positive (at least not at an affordable price). If the government bars insurers from seeing the results, carriers will simply assume that prospective buyers are more likely to have tested positive for Alzheimer’s and price all policies accordingly. Either way, the already-crippled voluntary long-term care insurance market would almost-certainly die.

Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by FORBES

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Labels: study