[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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