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Failure to address Alzheimer's disease undermines efforts to address other presidential and congressional priorities.
Failure to fund Alzheimer research adequately now is shortsighted
and counterproductive, especially at a time when Congress
and President Bush are searching for ways to control the
growth of Medicare and Medicaid spending and to protect
the health and retirement security of a rapidly aging population.
We cannot meet those larger challenges if we do not solve
the problem of Alzheimer’s disease. For millions of
older Americans, Alzheimer’s will pose one of the
largest threats to their personal retirement security because
of the high cost of long-term care that will come out of
their pockets.
Even though Medicare does not cover long-term care, and
Medicaid is available only after people have used up their
life savings on care, costs associated with Alzheimer’s
disease still threaten to overwhelm both Medicare and Medicaid:
Medicare spends nearly three times as much on basic health care for people with Alzheimer's disease than for the average beneficiary because 95 percent of them have other chronic health conditions exacerbated by their dementia. In 2000, Medicare was already spending $62 billion on beneficiaries with Alzheimer's, and that is projected to triple to $189 billion by 2015, even before most baby boomers have entered the age of highest risk. State and federal Medicaid spending for nursing home care for people with Alzheimer's disease was $19 billion in 2000 and will nearly double to $27 billion by 2015.
Breakthroughs in Alzheimer research can change this picture. If scientists can find treatments that are at least as effective as those discovered for congestive heart failure and Parkinson's disease, it would substantially reduce the number of people who have Alzheimer's disease and the severity of the disease among those who have it. The savings to Medicare and Medicaid would be dramatic:
Medicare spending could be cut by $51 billion by 2015, $126 billion by 2025 and $444 billion by 2050. Medicaid spending for nursing homes could be cut by $10 billion by 2015, $23 billion by 2025 and $70 billion by 2050.
It is hard to imagine a more cost-effective investment than the one Congress can make by funding adequately Alzheimer research.
Next: MEDICARE
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It is hard to imagine a more cost-effective investment than the one Congress can make by funding adequately Alzheimer research.
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