According to a Washington Post article last month, half of baby boomers will be living with Alzheimer’s disease by 2050. Robert Egge, chief policy officer for the Alzheimer’s Association, adds that continued funding boosts at this rate can change the game for what may be “the disease of our time.”
The proposed 2016 budget increases funding for Alzheimer’s by $350 million, more than a 50% increase overall, and fourteen times last year’s $25 million raise.
Alzheimer’s funding ($936 million under the proposed budget) is still nowhere near the levels of HIV/AIDS ($3 billion) and heart disease ($1.6 billion). Mayo clinic researchers and others are hoping this year’s increase will repeat annually to reach a $2 billion goal by 2020.
Without significant breakthroughs to cure or prevent the disease, public and private costs are predicted to reach $1.1 trillion by 2050.
“There have been outstanding scientific proposals, and they have been sitting on the sidelines, with scientists waiting to go, for lack of funding,” Egge says. “These are going to be able to be dusted off and acted on.”
Without action, advocates say, the financial and personal costs of Alzheimer’s are a ticking time bomb for the United States.
Source: Washington Post. Proposed budget for Alzheimer’s research may rise by over 50 percent
