Clinton to call for wider efforts to cure Alzheimer’s
U.S. deaths from Alzheimer’s are exploding, and Hillary Clinton wants to make it a major issue for the female and minority voters at a disproportionate risk of developing the disease.
Tuesday, in her last campaign speech before the Christmas holiday, Clinton plans to call for a dramatic increase in federal spending to find a cure for the only cause of death ranked in America’s top 10 that cannot be cured, prevented or even slowed, the campaign told USA TODAY. The Democratic front-runner will propose spending $2 billion a year in an attempt to cure the degenerative brain disease by 2025, according to a campaign official who was not authorized to speak publicly before the announcement.
It’s the first time a presidential candidate has made Alzheimer’s a major campaign issue, said Robert Egge, executive director of the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement, whose advocates lean on all 2016 campaigns to take up the issue. None has offered specific plans. “It makes this a national conversation,” he said.
Clinton plans to make her proposal at a campaign stop in Fairfield, Iowa. Monday, Clinton held a conference call with researchers during which she underscored the urgency of raising the disease’s profile.
From 2000 to 2013, Alzheimer’s deaths increased 71%, while heart disease fatalities dropped 14%. “Alzheimer’s is the red-haired stepchild among the top diseases threatening the aging and our health care system,” said Rudolph Tanzi, a neurology professor who discovered many of the genes leading to Alzheimer’s. He oversees a research center at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Congress significantly boosted funding levels in 2016, yet it’s still less than half of what researchers say they need every year. It’s an investment, they say, that would be recouped in the first three years after discovery of a treatment.
The alternative is about $1.1 trillion in costs for Medicare, Medicaid and caretakers in 2050.
Clinton is looking for issues that transcend generations and draw in independent female voters. Though most of the afflicted are older women, their primary caretakers are younger . About 40% of caregivers have a household income of $50,000 or less.