The Elephant in the Room
Alzheimer’s disease is the elephant in the room that is not effectively being planned for or dealt with by the Government or the Health Care industry. Consider just a few stats - By 2050, 115M people will be afflicted with the disease primarily due to the simple fact of living longer than earlier generations. The cost to Medicare and Medicaid is expected to be approx. $30 Trillion (yes that’s a T folks), which makes the current economic crisis and health care reform topics pale by comparative scale. Further, the availability of research funds for the study of Alzheimer’s disease, related treatment, and preventative therapies is significantly smaller than the funds that are channeled towards cancer and heart disease today.
One glimmer of sunshine may be the recent Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Act that doubles the available funds for Alzheimer’s research at the National Institutes of Health. This is expected to save $61B of annual cost for Medicare and Medicaid within five years of a breakthrough. You can easily do the math and realize it’s a drop in the bucket on the expected financial toll the disease will take on us all.
Read about some of awareness that has been raised at this week’s World Alzheimer’s Day. Join the fight!
