[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 142 (Wednesday, November 19, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H8074-H8075]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE EXTRAORDINARY COST OF ALZHEIMER'S

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Garamendi) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Speaker, I want today to talk about an illness 
that affects every American family. It is an illness that is 
devastating. It is Alzheimer's and related dementia. It is the most 
expensive illness in America today, and it will become even more 
expensive in the future.
  Today, $1 out of $5 spent by Medicare is spent treating Alzheimer's, 
most expensive of all our illnesses. As we look to the future, we are 
going to find that this disease, Alzheimer's, is going to grow over 
$1.5 trillion of costs by 2050, partly due to the baby boomers and 
their growth in the demography of this Nation, but also because of the 
extraordinary expense that this illness brings to us.
  This is the power curve that we are looking at. If you are concerned 
about the deficit, you need to be concerned about Alzheimer's. If you 
are concerned about the American family, you need to be concerned about 
Alzheimer's.
  Here is what we are looking at for what is the second biggest cost in 
the Federal budget, that is, Medicare and Medicaid. Here is the growth 
that we are looking over the period of the next 35 years, from some 
$122 billion to over $880 billion.
  As you look at the Federal budget in the years ahead, as you look at 
Medicare, as you begin to think about the deficit that confronts this 
Nation, this is where you need to look because this is where the big 
expenditure is going to be made. It is going to be in Alzheimer's and 
related illnesses to it. This is it.
  What can we do about this? We could sit and fuss and fume, we can 
take care of our seniors, or we can recognize the reality of what it 
means when we spend money on research, when we spend money on getting 
ahead of the illnesses. These are the major illnesses that confront 
America today.
  You can take a look here. Breast cancer, there has been a decrease in 
mortality; prostate cancer, a decrease; heart disease, a 16 percent 
decrease; stroke, a 23 percent decrease; and of course, HIV/AIDS, an 
extraordinary 42 percent decrease in the deaths from these major 
illnesses.
  Over here on the purple one on the right, Alzheimer's. Decrease? No. 
Increase? Sixty-eight percent increase from 2000 to 2010.
  This is the reality of the most prevalent and most expensive and the 
most devastating disease that confronts Americans and really the rest 
of the world.

                              {time}  1015

  What can we do about it?
  Let's take a look at this chart. Alzheimer's spending treatment 
versus research. Let's see. We are spending $150 billion on the 
treatment. This is Medicare and Medicaid, and research, oh, way down 
here, $566 million on research.
  So if you want to drive the deficit to even greater depths, treat but 
don't do research. However, if you want to solve this problem, we know 
how to do it. In fact, we have done it many, many times.
  If you take a look at cancer, we are spending $5.418 billion on 
cancer research. Cancer deaths are down. HIV, we are spending $2.978 
billion on HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS deaths are down by 42 percent. 
Cardiovascular, $2 billion. Cardiovascular deaths, strokes and heart 
disease down. Alzheimer's, $566 million.
  We know the answer. The question is whether we are willing to put our 
money where we can solve the most devastating, the most prevalent, and 
the most expensive of all illnesses.
  Change this little purple, bring it back up perhaps to $2 billion a 
year, as we do with HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular, and cancer. Spend the 
research money. We are close in many, many ways across this Nation with 
programs that are under way.
  Here is the specific ask that I make to this Congress: not $2 
billion, but $200 million additional money in the appropriations that 
we are doing today--$200 million.

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