Source: United States Senator for Kansas – Jerry Moran
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (Kan.) joined his colleagues in introducing two bills that would build on important progress that has been made to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s costs the nation $321 billion per year, including $206 billion in costs to Medicare and Medicaid. Nearly 12.7 million seniors are projected to develop Alzheimer’s disease by 2050. If the U.S. continues along this trajectory, annual costs will almost surpass $1 trillion. In 2021, family caregivers provided 16 billion hours of unpaid care for loved ones with dementia. Nearly half of baby boomers reaching age 85 will either be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or caring for someone who has it.
In 2011, the U.S. Senate passed the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) which convened a panel of experts who created a coordinated strategic national plan to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. The law is set to expire soon and must be reauthorized to make certain that research investments remain coordinated and their impact is maximized.
“Our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and the development of new treatments have made significant progress since the National Alzheimer’s Project Act was first signed into law in 2011,” said Sen. Moran. “As our senior population expands, more research and treatment will be required to treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease. It’s important that we continue the work of NAPA and invest in further research of this horrible disease.”
The NAPA Reauthorization Act would reauthorize NAPA through 2035 and modernize the legislation to reflect strides that have been made to understand the disease, such as including a new focus on promoting healthy aging and reducing risk factors.
The Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act would continue through 2035 a requirement that the Director of the National Institutes of Health submit an annual budget to Congress estimating the funding necessary to fully implement NAPA’s research goals. Only two other areas of biomedical research – cancer and HIV/AIDS – have been the subject of special budget development aimed at speeding discovery.
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