SENATORS COLLINS WELCOMES RELEASE OF NATIONAL PLAN TO TREAT, PREVENT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE BY 2025

            WASHINGTON, D.C.-U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Senate co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer's disease, today praised the release of a new, national plan with a goal of preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer's by 2025.  The National Alzheimer's Project Act, which was authored by Senator Collins and former Senator Evan Bayh, passed the House and the Senate unanimously in 2010, required the Department of Health and Human Services to create the national plan that was released today.

            An estimated 5.4 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease, including more than 25,000 people in Maine, and 15 million are expected to be diagnosed over the coming decades.  If nothing is done to change the current trajectory, 13.5 million Americans over the age of 65 will have Alzheimer's disease by 2050.  In addition to the suffering it causes, Alzheimer's costs the United States $183 billion a year, primarily in nursing home and other long-term care costs.  This figure 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.

             "Alzheimer's disease takes a tremendous personal and economic toll on both the individual and the family," said Senator Collins.  "As the Senate co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer's disease, and as someone whose family has experienced the pain of Alzheimer's many times, I am committed to conquering this dreadful disease that has caused such pain for so many American families.  This national plan, with a goal of preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer's by 2025, demonstrates an important commitment to a national effort to fight this horrible disease."