Alzheimer’s: The Most Expensive Disease in America



President Ronald Reagan

While Alzheimer's diease was first described in 1901 by a German physician, it was relatively unknown until the last quarter of the 20th century. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan designated November as National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month. Years later, Reagan himself suffered with the disease. When one of my dearest friends was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, I realized that I knew very little about the disease. I soon learned that Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, which is a collective term for a number of conditions marked by a loss of mental abilities. Generally the disease begins near the brain’s memory center, the hippocampus, and then spreads to areas of the brain that control language, judgment, and physical activity. This cruel ailment steals our memories, steals our independence and finally steals our dignity by eroding the ability to manage the basic tasks of daily life.

Jimmy Stewart



The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that 5.2 million Americans had Alzheimer’s disease in 2014, a figure that has risen steadily over the years. Nearly two-thirds of Alzheimer’s sufferers are women.  Young people can develop Alzheimer’s, but the disease is most common among those over 65. It is degenerative and gets worse over time. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, and no treatment that appears to stop its spread in the brain. Experts emphasize that the severe decline in mental capacity caused by Alzheimer’s is not a normal sign of aging. The minor problems that we all call “senior moments” are not indicative of any disease. Signs of a clinical state of dementia, in contrast, are much more serious.

Sugar Ray Robinson

Cases are increasing and the costs are staggering, devouring federal and state health care budgets and depleting the life savings of millions of victims and their families. Recent studies show that the cost of caring for Americans with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias has surpassed the cost of treatment for cancer patients or victims of heart disease. Alzheimer’s currently cost the United States some $214 billion annually. While deaths from some cancers and heart disease are declining, the number of Alzheimer’s cases continues to increase every year as the population grows older. Care of victims will cost Medicare and Medicaid $150 billion in the current fiscal year, the remaining costs fall on the patients and their families. . Some health care professionals fear that if we don’t get control of over this disease, it is going to bankrupt both Medicare and Medicaid.

Estelle Getty

Washington has committed $5.4 billion this fiscal year to cancer research, about $1.2 billion on heart disease and $3 billion to research on HIV/AIDS. Research funding for Alzheimer’s will reach only about $566 million. Obviously, we are not spending nearly enough to find ways to deal with this problem.  The National Alzheimer’s Project created by Congress in 2011 projects that achieving a goal of developing methods of prevention and effective treatment by 2025 will require $2 billion annually over the next decade. Congress to date has never approved more than $600 million in annual funding-less than one-third of the projected minimal requirement.

Seth Rogan, star of movies such as Knocked Up and Super Bad took up the cause when he saw his mother-in-law disabled by dementia before she turned 60. Many familiar public faces were sufferers of Alzheimer’s, i.e. former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance,  former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, boxers Floyd Patterson and Sugar Ray Robinson, actors Charlton Heston, Rita Hayworth, Charles Bronson, and Peter Falk, singer Etta James and Perry Como, columnist Abigail Van Buren, TV stars Estelle Getty (Sophia on Golden Girls) and Burgess Meredith (Penguin onf Batman TV series)... and the list goes on and on. Since there’s no cure for the disease and no treatment to stop the spread in the brain, “there’s never been a patient who recovered from Alzheimer’s” notes Robert Egge, chief public policy officer at the Alzheimer’s Association.

We have to start talking about this disease, learning about it, overcomig the stigmas associated with it, and getting the attention needed to secure the funding it deserves and needs. 2015 is a great time to start.

Read More