Alzheimer's costs to soar, group tells Congress

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From staff and wire reports

(CNN) -- The costs of treating Alzheimer's disease could overwhelm government resources in the next decade, advocates told a U.S. Senate subcommittee Tuesday.

Members of the Alzheimer's Association testified before the Senate subcommittee for Appropriations, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. They are seeking an additional $200 million in the next year to fund research into several investigative treatments.

"Over the next decade, the cost of Alzheimer's disease to Medicare and Medicaid will increase by more than 50 percent," Stephen McConnell of the Alzheimer's Association said after the hearing. "This is alarming enough, but it happens even before this enormous impact that comes with the Baby Boomers hitting the age at highest risk."

The federal government already spends some $50 million treating Alzheimer's victims, the association said in a report released in conjunction with the funding appeal. By 2010, that figure could swell to more than $82 million.

"These enormous costs can be contained, but we have to act now," McConnell said.

There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease, which causes progressive dementia and eventually death. Some 4 million Americans suffer from it, but that number is expected to increase to 5.5 million by 2010, the Alzheimer's Association said. By 2050, 14 million American could be victims, the group said.

"Half of us in this room today already have the time bomb of Alzheimer's disease ticking in our brain," actor David Hyde-Pierce, whose father had Alzheimer's, told the senators. "Congress has to find a way. Congress has to fund a way to diffuse that time bomb, or it will destroy us."

The subcommittee members are deciding how to allocate an additional $2.8 billion budgeted for the National Institutes of Health. The agency already spends $515 million on Alzheimer's research, the association said. Within a few years, the group said, it would like to see $1 billion per year spent on finding a cure for the disease.

Facilities conducting Alzheimer's research need more money to increase their trials before more people fall victim to the disease, advocates said.

"How long it takes to produce and prove disease therapies work in this disease requires that we move quickly before the leading edge of this epidemic gets here," said Dr. Steven Dekosky, spokesman for the Alzheimer's Association.

More than 4,000 Alzheimer's patients around the world are participating in trials to find a way to prevent or slow the progression of the disease.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Alzheimer's Association
Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral
Alzheimer's Disease International

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