Looming Crisis in Health Care System Will Bankrupt Federal and State Budgets As Millions of Baby Boomers Succumb to Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's Association
Wednesday, 7 May 2003

The cost of Alzheimer's disease is unsustainable and will bankrupt our heath care system as baby boomers reach the age of risk, according to Sheldon Goldberg, president and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association. Goldberg urged lawmakers today to increase federal research funding by $200 million at a Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.

"The U.S. health care system is about to implode, and Alzheimer's disease will be the detonator," said Goldberg, who testified before the House Labor/HHS/Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee.

"There is a disaster looming on the horizon that only President Bush and Congress can prevent," said Goldberg. "This is a Congress that must confront growing budget deficits in Medicare and Medicaid."

"My message is simple. You will not —you cannot—save Medicare and Medicaid unless you get Alzheimer's disease under control. You will not —you cannot—balance federal and state budgets if you let Alzheimer's disease continue on its present course."

According to the Association, Alzheimer's disease is already driving up Medicare costs. The program pays three times more for basic health care for persons with dementia than it pays for other beneficiaries. That holds true across age groups and medical conditions. Within 10 years, annual Medicare costs for beneficiaries with Alzheimer's will increase from $32 billion to almost $50 billion- even before the baby boomers enter the age of risk. "Imagine what will happen to Medicare when 14 million baby boomers have Alzheimer's disease," said Goldberg.

"The outlook for Medicaid is just as grim," said Goldberg. "For 16 years, I represented long term care providers here in Washington. More recently, I ran one of the oldest and largest long term health care systems in the country. I can tell you that these systems are already full of people with Alzheimer's disease. Nearly 60 percent of residents of our nursing homes - and perhaps as many in assisted living - have dementia. They are already straining capacity to the breaking point."

"We need to work as hard as we can to provide more options for people to stay at home with their families as long as they can," said Goldberg. "But eventually most people with Alzheimer's disease will need full time care that is beyond the ability of families to manage on their own. If we let 14 million baby boomers get to that point in Alzheimer's disease, we will be building nursing homes on virtually every street corner in America."

"The cost of long term care will bankrupt families first. And then it will bankrupt Medicaid. Within 10 years, Medicaid's share of the annual nursing home bill for people with Alzheimer's will increase by 80 percent- from $18 billion to $33 billion," said Goldberg.

"If I were a governor, I would be beating down the doors of Congress demanding the funds for an all-out assault on Alzheimer's disease," said Goldberg. "If I were a corporate CEO, I would be here urging you to act, because Alzheimer's disease is extracting heavy costs from American business as well."

In 2002, the cost to business was $61 billion - the majority of it a result of lost productivity of workers caring for people with Alzheimer's disease. That is the equivalent of the profits in 2002 of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies and almost twice as much as the 1998 estimate of a $33 billion cost to business.

"We still have time to mount a successful offensive against Alzheimer's disease," said Goldberg. "The Alzheimer's Association has laid out a clear plan in our National Program to Conquer Alzheimer's Disease. Part of that plan calls for changes in Medicare to focus a chronic care benefit that will keep people out of hospitals, emergency rooms, and nursing homes. This will help hold down some increases in Medicare and Medicaid costs, but the only real way to save Medicare and Medicaid, and to get health care spending under control, is by reducing the numbers of people who need expensive care - and that will come only through research."

"We are calling on Congress to provide an immediate increase in appropriations for Alzheimer research of at least $200 million," said Goldberg. "With such an increase, the National Institutes of Health will have the resources they need to maintain the momentum of Alzheimer research - to find effective ways to prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease while there is still time to make a difference. That level of funding will keep research flowing rapidly through the pipeline from basic science through clinical trials. It will also provide funds for the imaging and genetics initiatives that will get us to prevention and treatments faster, better, and in the long run, cheaper."

"Our nation is facing huge challenges today -- rising budget deficits, the war in Iraq and continued threats to our homeland security," said Goldberg. "We understand that this is a time when Congress has to make tough choices and set clear priorities. It is a time that demands personal sacrifice and postponed agendas. It is also a time that requires leadership — leadership to make sure that we confront our most urgent domestic problems."

"We have a choice. We pay now, or we leave other congresses, other presidents, other generations to pay much more later."

The largest private funder of Alzheimer research, the Association has committed $136 million toward research into the causes, treatment, prevention, and cure of Alzheimer's. You can reach the Alzheimer's Association at 800.272.3900.

For more information, or to contact Alzheimer's Association, see their website at: www.alz.org