KS and MO for Alzheimer's Breakthrough Act
Currently, 5.3 million Americans are afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. It is a terminal illness that robs a person of their memory, their ability to understand and communicate and oftentimes, alters their personality. Ultimately, along with impaired cognitive ability, Alzheimer's sufferers forget how to do simple, personal care tasks. Unfortunately, in the last six years, funding for Alzheimer's research has decreased while costs to Medicare and Medicaid soared.
Please urge your local representatives and senators to support the Alzheimer's Breakthrough Act of 2009 which increases funding and encourages the National Institute of Health to emphasize Alzheimer's research as a top priority in regards to early detection, diagnosis, prevention and identifying possible precursors. It also, supports caregiver training and education.
Currently, there are 64 members of Congress who co-sponsor the bill. Only three representatives from Missouri have provided their support. Unfortunately, Kansas has yet to show any sponsorship. With the Baby Boomer population reaching age 65 in two years, we as Kansans and Missourians can not afford to live in states that fail to support the well-being of our senior citizens.
We the undersigned, would like to express our concern regarding the decrease in funding towards Alzheimer's research in the last six years. Furthermore, we urge you to support the
Alzheimer's Breakthrough Act of 2009 (S. 1492/H.R. 3286). The act would increase funding for research in areas such as prevention, precursor recognition, and early diagnosis. Since many families of Alzheimer's sufferers are also their caregivers, the bill also addresses the need for caregiver support and programs.
Increasing age is one of the prime risk factors of Alzheimer's. Secondly, in two years, the Baby Boomer generation will have reached the age of 65. Given those two factors, the amount of people who will be diagnosed with Alzheimer's will increase exponentially. More specifically, the expense to Medicare and Medicaid in the next 40 years is predicted to total $20 trillion dollars.
We urge you to sponsor the
Alzheimer's Breakthrough Act of 2009 to combat this impending financial and medical crisis. The restored funding in research will tackle the costly impact that Alzheimer's will have to our nation's health insurance programs. More importantly, the act will strive to improve the quality of life for Alzheimer's sufferers and their families and/or caregivers.
Thank you for your time,
