Alzheimer's Association Calls on Bush to Increase Research Funding at NIH, Find Solutions to Chronic and Long Term Care

1/27/2003

From: Scott Treibitz, 703-626-1407, for the Alzheimer's Association

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 -- The Alzheimer's Association today called on President Bush to increase research funding at NIH and to find solutions to issues of chronic- and long term-care. Following is the statement of Bonnie Hogue, director of federal and state issues:

There is a health care disaster looming on the horizon that only the President and Congress can prevent. The U.S. health care system is about to implode, and Alzheimer's disease will be the detonator. Unless we find solutions within the next few years we will bankrupt our health care system and destroy the infrastructure that provides care.

We are in a Race against Time. It is a race we can win but only if President Bush leads us to the finish line. Alzheimer's is an epidemic that is already driving costs out of control.

We call on President Bush to:

-- Provide $1 billion for Alzheimer research at the National Institutes of Health, to reduce dramatically the numbers of people with Alzheimer's in the future and to lessen the disabling impact of the disease for those who get it.

-- Direct Medicare resources to chronic care, including meaningful prescription drug coverage, to prevent the acute care crises and excess disability that are driving health care costs today.

-- Maintain the Medicaid long term care safety net while expanding options and supports for family-centered home and community based care.

Twenty years ago, President Ronald Reagan launched a national campaign against Alzheimer's disease -- at a time when it was assumed there were less than 2 million Americans with the disease. With foresight, he focused on the heavy "emotional, financial, and social consequences of Alzheimer's disease" and on research as the hope for families and victims."

President Bush can pay no greater tribute to Ronald Reagan, or assure a more lasting legacy, than to provide the resources now for Alzheimer research and care.