To cure Alzheimer’s, we must be ‘BOLD’
Twenty-eight million people call Texas home. It is one of the fastest growing and most diverse states in the country, and I am proud to live here. While thousands of people are moving here every year, there is another growing population in Texas that should have our focus.
More than 5 million Americans, including 380,000 Texans, have Alzheimer’s disease. My mother was one of them. And this number is rapidly increasing. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the number of people living with Alzheimer’s in Texas is expected to increase by more than 28 percent by 2025.
When my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and cancer in the same month, my husband and I decided to move my parents into our home. Together with my sister Audrey, we became my mother’s caregivers as we navigated two devastating diseases. On a daily basis, we dealt with stresses of addressing cognitive decline and behavioral changes resulting from Alzheimer’s. And, we learned, through the help of a support group, friends and countless other resources, how to “go into the pain” of dealing with these diseases.
We experienced first-hand that Alzheimer’s disease takes a significant emotional and economic toll on family members. And we’re not alone. Today, 1.4 million people in Texas are Alzheimer’s caregivers. Just last year, these provided unpaid care to loved ones living with Alzheimer’s valued at over $20.2 billion, not to mention out of pocket costs.
Across the country, Alzheimer’s is so expensive that it could very well bankrupt our health care system, costing the country an estimated $277 billion (including $186 billion in Medicare and Medicaid payments) by year’s end, and more than $1.1 trillion by mid-century.
Currently, there is no way to slow, stop or prevent Alzheimer’s. So what can be done to support the needs of caregivers and care planning for people living with this disease?
Perhaps surprisingly, that answer may come from the U.S. Congress. Elected officials are currently considering bipartisan legislation, supported by nearly half of the Senate and over a third of the House so far, that would strengthen our country’s response to Alzheimer’s as a growing public health crisis.
The Building Our Largest Dementia Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act (S. 2076/H.R. 4256) would provide state, local and tribal public health officials the funding and resources necessary to increase early detection, diagnosis and improve data collection around Alzheimer’s disease.
These resources would also help reduce risk, prevent avoidable hospitalizations and address health disparities — all of which impact those living with the disease and their millions of unpaid caregivers.
Unfortunately, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Rep. Pete Olson have not yet added their support to the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act.
As Cruz vies for re-election, certainly it is worth considering how supporting this bill could not only help families like mine in Texas, but families across the country affected by this devastating disease. And as a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over this matter, Olson has the opportunity to help advance this important legislation.
Recent polling shows that 4 out of 5 voters support increasing federal research funding for Alzheimer’s disease, and the majority of the voters want candidates to share their plans to fight the disease. Thus, Cruz and Olson should join their colleagues in supporting this critical legislation.
To put it bluntly, the 380,000 Texans living with the disease and their 1.4 million family caregivers need this help. It is time for our elected leaders to take ‘BOLD’ bold action to support all of us impacted by one of America’s deadliest — and most expensive — diseases.