“Saving Lives And Money”
As the Senate co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s disease, I know what a tremendous personal and economic toll this terrible disease takes on both the individual and the family.
As someone whose family has experienced the pain of Alzheimer’s too many times, I know all too well that there is no more helpless feeling than to watch the progression of this dreadful disease.
In addition to the human suffering they cause, high-cost, chronic diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease pose significant challenges to the fiscal health of our nation.
Alzheimer’s disease alone costs the United States $183 billion a year, a figure that will only increase exponentially as the baby boom generation ages. If nothing is done to slow or stop the disease, Alzheimer’s will cost the United States $20 trillion over the next 40 years.
At a time of mounting deficits, the increasing incidence of diseases like diabetes and Alzheimer’s also has dire implications for our federal budget. For example, it is estimated that spending on diabetes accounts for one out of three Medicare dollars. The average annual Medicare payment for an individual with Alzheimer’s is three times higher than for those without the condition. For Medicaid, average payments for someone with Alzheimer’s are nine times higher.
The federal government is currently spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year caring for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other conditions. This price tag will only increase as our population ages. Left unchecked, these devastating diseases threaten not only to destroy our nation’s health, but also to bankrupt our finances.
We simply cannot afford to wait. Acting now will save money and, more important, it will save lives. That is why I recently introduced bipartisan legislation, along with Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), that would accelerate the development of treatments and therapies for high-cost diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.
Our bill, the Spending Reductions through Innovations in Therapies Agenda , or SPRINT, Act is intended to speed the development of therapies to significantly modify, cure, or prevent these high-cost, chronic conditions.
Among other provisions, our bill would authorize $50 million for a public-private SPRINT Program and Fund within the Department of Health and Human Services to support advanced research into promising therapies that are most likely to improve health outcomes and reduce health care costs. This program would complement the basic research done by the National Institutes of Health. It would work through public-private partnerships to provide modest resources to research institutions and other innovators conducting advanced research into therapies and treatments for Alzheimer’s and other high-cost chronic conditions.
It’s important to note that each federal dollar awarded under the program must be matched by at least $2 in private funding, and the Department of Health and Human Services could end funding for projects that fail to meet milestones. Finally, the legislation would expedite review by the Food and Drug Administration of the therapies developed through the program so they could be delivered to patients as quickly as possible.
Chronic diseases like Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes and cancer cause great suffering and financial hardship for millions of Americans and their families. Given their increasing prevalence as our population ages, they also threaten to bankrupt critically important programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
The SPRINT Act would leverage a relatively small federal investment to speed the development of therapies that have the potential to prevent, delay, cure, and improve outcomes for these terrible diseases. It also offers us an opportunity to control the costs associated with these devastating conditions, while truly making a difference in millions of lives.
