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IN THE NEWS...
News articles
relating to Alzheimer’s.
In
the news:
Recent
articles to pay attention to:
Stem Cell Research
Position Changed In keeping with its mission to eliminate Alzheimer’s
disease, the Alzheimer’s Association opposes any restriction or limitation
on human stem cell research, provided that appropriate scientific review,
and ethical and oversight guidelines are in place.”…
Saving Lives, Saving Money Report “Research
Breakthroughs Could Result in 45 Percent Decrease in Alzheimer's Cases and
$149 Billion in Annual Medicare and Medicaid Savings by 2025.”
May 3rd 2004 Hearing
Before the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee &
Members of the House of Representatives Alzheimer’s Caucus
The Alzheimer's Association and friends testified on the importance of
Alzheimer outreach funding.
DOA State Plan
The Alzheimer’s Association
delivered testimony
at 1 of 3 hearings held statewide to discuss the plan. There were only
two references to Alzheimer’s disease in the entire 2004-8 plan. Both were
valuable.
The
Association's national board of directors has updated the Association's
position on stem cell research. The new position:
In
keeping with its mission to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease, the Alzheimer’s
Association opposes any restriction or limitation on human stem cell
research, provided that appropriate scientific review, and ethical and
oversight guidelines are in place.
—Adopted
by the Alzheimer’s Association National Board of Directors on
June 13, 2004
In line
with the board's decision, the Association has been added as a signatory
(along with 133 other organizations) to a letter to President Bush in
support of expanding available embryonic stem cells for research. The
carefully worded letter, under the banner of the Coalition for the
Advancement of Medical Research, does not overstate the therapeutic value of
stem cells for Alzheimer's disease.
Saving
Lives, Saving Money Report
6.21.04
Contacts:
Jackie
Nedell
202.973.5826
Natalie Adler
202.973.5865
Research Breakthroughs Could Result in 45 Percent
Decrease in Alzheimer's Cases and $149 Billion in Annual Medicare and
Medicaid Savings by 2025
Alzheimer's Association Calls for
Increasing Investment in Research
to at Least $1 Billion Annually
Washington, D.C.—A new Alzheimer's Association report released today shows
that medical research breakthroughs could result in nearly 3 million fewer
Americans with the disease and $149 billion in annual Medicare and Medicaid
savings by 2025.
Speaking at a Capitol Hill press conference with members of the Senate and
House, Sheldon Goldberg, president and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association,
urged Congress to increase the federal investment in Alzheimer research at
the National Institutes of Health to at least $1 billion annually.
"With a
five-year investment in research, we could achieve major breakthroughs in
delaying the onset of the disease and slowing its progression," Goldberg
said. "The resulting savings to our overburdened health care system would be
astronomical. If Congress wants to control health care costs, Alzheimer's
disease is the place to begin, and the time to begin is now."
Goldberg said that for every dollar spent now on research, taxpayers would
receive a tremendous return in future savings on Medicare and Medicaid
costs—12 to 1 by 2015, 30 to 1 by 2025, and over 100 to 1 by 2050—if the
disease could be delayed a few years and its progression slowed. Preventing
the disease would produce an even higher return.
Sen.
Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Labor Health
and Human Services Subcommittee stated, "These findings show that increasing
spending now for Alzheimer research will pay significant dividends for the
future in terms of both lessening human suffering and saving billions of
dollars in Medicare and Medicaid spending. I'm delighted to join with the
Alzheimer's Association in calling for setting the goal of $1 billion for
Alzheimer research."
Today,
Medicare beneficiaries with Alzheimer's account for 34 percent of Medicare
spending, even though they constitute only 12.8 percent of the population
over the age of 65. With the nation's 77 million baby boomers approaching
old age, the number of Americans with the disease and associated costs are
projected to soar. Adequate funding for research on prevention and
treatments must begin now because the boomers will begin to enter the age of
risk for the disease in 2010.
The
report, entitled Saving Lives, Saving
Money: Dividends for Americans from Investing in Alzheimer Research,
was conducted by the Lewin Group, an international health and human services
consulting firm, on behalf of the Alzheimer's Association. The firm analyzed
the impact of Alzheimer's disease research breakthroughs on costs and
disease prevalence. The report assumed that with a sufficient level of
funding, researchers will be able to find a) a way to delay onset of the
disease as much as they have been able to delay onset of congestive heart
failure; and b) a way to slow progression as much as scientists have slowed
the progression of Parkinson's disease.
Working
collaboratively, the federal government, the Alzheimer's Association, and
the pharmaceutical industry have made great research advances over the past
20 years that have laid the foundation for major breakthroughs in
prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in the years ahead.
"Increasing funding for Alzheimer research will increase the pace of
discoveries that could slow or delay the progression of the disease and
eventually prevent it," said Ronald Petersen, M.D., Ph.D., a member of the
Alzheimer's Association's Medical and Scientific Advisory Council, President
Ronald Reagan's neurologist and member of a team of physicians who diagnosed
the President with Alzheimer's disease in 1994, and director of the
Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the Mayo Clinic. "We can build a
future without Alzheimer's disease if we act now to achieve breakthroughs in
science."
The
projected Medicaid and Medicare savings would come from a dramatic reduction
in the number of Americans with Alzheimer's disease and a substantial
reduction in the numbers who progress to severe stages of the disease when
care needs and costs are highest. The new report shows that the projected
research advances would lead to:
- A drop in the number of Americans projected to have Alzheimer's in
2025 from 6.5 million to 3.6 million—a nearly 45 percent decrease.
- Significant savings in Medicare spending on people with Alzheimer's.
If the projected research breakthroughs occur by 2010, taxpayers would
begin to see savings as early as 2015, when Medicare spending would
decline by $51 billion to $138 billion. By 2025, annual spending for
beneficiaries who are now projected to have Alzheimer's would decline by
43 percent, or $126 billion—from $294 billion to $168 billion. And by
2050, Medicare would save $444 billion in annual spending for
beneficiaries with Alzheimer's—from $1,049 billion to $605 billion. In
addition, 5.3 million fewer Americans would have Alzheimer's disease in
2050 because of the advances.
- Dramatic savings in Medicaid spending for nursing home care for
people with Alzheimer's disease. Medicaid would have savings of up to 60
percent by 2025 because of improvements in prevention and treatment.
Without medical advances, Medicaid spending is projected to increase from
$27 billion in 2015 to $38 billion in 2025 and $118 billion by 2050. With
improvements in prevention and treatment, the 2015 cost is projected to be
$17 billion, the 2025 cost is $15 billion, and the 2050 cost is $48
billion.
The Association believes that a $1 billion annual investment would be a
fitting tribute to the late President Reagan and his family. Last week, Sens.
Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Christopher Bond (R-Mo.) introduced legislation
that would authorize a doubling of annual research spending to $1.4 billion.
Similar legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Reps.
Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Smith (R-N.J.).
Goldberg warned that Congress and the
Administration must move quickly. "There is a narrow window of time to reach
these breakthroughs in order to achieve these savings," he said. "Because
the process that leads to the devastating effects of Alzheimer's begins at
least 10 years before symptoms appear, we must find ways to delay onset
before boomers enter the age of risk. That is why the increased investment
in Alzheimer research must be made now." To read the complete
Saving Lives, Saving Money
report, visit the
Association's Web site.
The portion of the report prepared by The
Lewin Group was funded through an unrestricted grant by PhRMA to the
Alzheimer's Association.
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