Please join me in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease
letter to the editor
To the Editor:
Congress unanimously passed the bipartisan National Alzheimer’s Project Act (P.L. 111-375) in 2010, requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to create and annually update a National Alzheimer’s Plan to overcome the disease. In 2017, Alzheimer’s is the most expensive disease in America. The cost for caring for those with Alzheimer’s is $259 billion a year, with $175 billion of that amount paid by Medicare and Medicaid. The annual costs are set to increase rapidly to $1.1 trillion by 2050 if we don’t develop a method of prevention, treatment or cure for this sixth leading cause of death in America.
On top of the expense is the toll it takes on caregivers. When my brother was diagnosed at age 52, my options for getting him help were limited in Medina County. I was lucky as I work for myself. I could take as much time off as I needed to help him. From August of 2010 until he went into a nursing home in September of 2012, I easily took off over six months from work to take care of his needs. Then there was the personal time my siblings and I spent, helping him with his medications and taking him places during the evenings and on weekends.
A treatment that simply delayed the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by five years would lower Medicare spending on those with the disease by one-quarter in 2050 – and the federal government would recoup its research investment in less than three years. (More information is available from the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2017 Facts and Figures annual report at alz.org/facts.)
Please join me in asking Representative Jim Renacci to support an additional $414 million for Alzheimer’s research funding in FY18, to fully fund the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Alzheimer’s Bypass Budget and lead the fight against this devastating disease.
Elaine Ohm
Hinckley
Congress unanimously passed the bipartisan National Alzheimer’s Project Act (P.L. 111-375) in 2010, requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to create and annually update a National Alzheimer’s Plan to overcome the disease. In 2017, Alzheimer’s is the most expensive disease in America. The cost for caring for those with Alzheimer’s is $259 billion a year, with $175 billion of that amount paid by Medicare and Medicaid. The annual costs are set to increase rapidly to $1.1 trillion by 2050 if we don’t develop a method of prevention, treatment or cure for this sixth leading cause of death in America.
On top of the expense is the toll it takes on caregivers. When my brother was diagnosed at age 52, my options for getting him help were limited in Medina County. I was lucky as I work for myself. I could take as much time off as I needed to help him. From August of 2010 until he went into a nursing home in September of 2012, I easily took off over six months from work to take care of his needs. Then there was the personal time my siblings and I spent, helping him with his medications and taking him places during the evenings and on weekends.
A treatment that simply delayed the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by five years would lower Medicare spending on those with the disease by one-quarter in 2050 – and the federal government would recoup its research investment in less than three years. (More information is available from the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2017 Facts and Figures annual report at alz.org/facts.)
Please join me in asking Representative Jim Renacci to support an additional $414 million for Alzheimer’s research funding in FY18, to fully fund the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Alzheimer’s Bypass Budget and lead the fight against this devastating disease.
Elaine Ohm
Hinckley
