The Devastation of Alzheimer's Disease
Floor Speech
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Mr. GUTHRIE. I want to thank my friend from California for yielding.
I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to talk about this devastating disease that impacts nearly every family in America: Alzheimer's disease.
According to the Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's is the costliest disease in America, with a direct cost of roughly $200 billion--most of which is paid by Medicare and Medicaid, and accounts for 20 percent of Medicare spending. These numbers will only continue to increase, making the discovery of a cure, or a way to delay onset, critical to our health care economy.
Across the United States, more than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's today. In addition, the Alzheimer's Association estimates that someone will develop this disease every 67 seconds. Eleven percent of Kentucky's seniors are currently living with Alzheimer's. It is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States.
But it is not the financial drain that is the most devastating.
My family has been personally touched by Alzheimer's. My great uncle suffered from the disease. I will never forget as a little boy hearing my grandmother talk to my mother about my uncle getting lost and trying to find his way home from the grocery store. Nobody really understood it. I remember as a young boy being confused about how this uncle I knew could be so confused and lose his way.
I also experienced it in my family with my wife's grandfather. I will never forget when my wife and I went to visit him the first time he didn't recognize her. The devastation on her face that someone she loved so much didn't know who she was has still stuck with me today.
This disease is emotionally wrenching for families who are impacted.
Beyond the direct emotional and physical impact, family members serving as primary caregivers are stretched to their limits. Many spouses and grown children work full time-jobs and then come home to care for their family member.
Finding a cure or treatment for Alzheimer's is of the utmost importance. I was pleased to introduce H.R. 4351 with my colleague, Representative Paul Tonko of New York.
H.R. 4351, the Alzheimer's Accountability Act, seeks to ensure that the research and resources needed to find a cure for Alzheimer's are properly conveyed to Congress. By receiving a professional judgment budget directly, Congress will be in a better position to see the needs and promise of researchers and use that information to make critical decisions, especially during difficult budgetary situations.
Today, H.R. 4351 is bipartisan. My friend Paul Tonko and myself filed this legislation. We have 80 cosponsors. There is also a Senate companion bill, and it is gaining momentum.
Again, I want to thank my colleague for organizing this evening and for allowing me to be part of this effort to shine a light on Alzheimer's disease. I would also like to encourage all of my colleagues to cosponsor H.R. 4351, and help make fighting Alzheimer's a top priority.
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Mr. GUTHRIE. I will just take a couple of minutes. Thank you for yielding.
I thank Representative Tonko for cosponsoring and working on this legislation together.
I will have to give also my sympathies to Ms. Slaughter. She took me in when I first got here. I know she is from upstate New York, but if you listen to her accent, it has got a little bit of Kentucky mountain in it.
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Mr. GUTHRIE. She is from our beloved mountains. We had that connection. She has been special to me. So my prayers are with her.
The one thing I want to share, because we are short of time, is we are doing research into this. The Alzheimer's Association said by 2050, Alzheimer's disease will cost the Federal treasury a trillion dollars.
So I remember thinking, Well, by 2050 my great grandkids would have to take care of that. Then I did the math. I am going to be 86 in 2050. So the generation that will be in that category is me. It is not some long-off issue. So my children will be dealing with it, as well as me and people my age.
I am the end of the Baby Boom. I was born in 1964. So by the time I am 86, the entire Baby Boom will be older than me. At least my age, or older. And that will be not just a stress on the Federal budget, but as I said, the dignity of the person with the disease and the stress on the family dealing with the disease and the emotion of it is why it is so important.
I saw it with my great uncle, with the early onset of Alzheimer's when I was a young boy and didn't quite understand what was going on. And later on in life, we figured out what was happening. Our whole family didn't really understand what was going on in the 1970s. But we do now. And I think it is something we need to put the efforts of both parties together on--as you see, we are standing here together--the effort to move forward. It is when my generation is retired, our children aren't going to be able to sustain it financially or emotionally. Therefore, it is something we need to do today.
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