Congressman Chris Smith (Robbinsville, NJ-04) met with John Sturtevant of Ocean Township , N.J., the “Alzheimer’s Ambassador” for the Alzheimer’s Association Greater New Jersey Chapter, and Ashley Santillo, of Spring Lake, N.J. Friday to discuss the first-ever comprehensive National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease released earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

    Smith coauthored the law that mandated the plan with Congressman Edward J. Markey (MA-07), who with Smith co-chairs the Congressional Taskforce on Alzheimer’s, to create the national plan to address the devastating disease. The plan includes the bold national goal of preventing or treating Alzheimer’s disease by 2025 and represents an historic commitment by the federal government to tackling a disease that cost $140 billion to care for Alzheimer’s patients last year.

    Santillo and Sturtevant both have loved ones affected by the disease. They spoke to Smith about the federal efforts to step up the fight against the disease.

    "The National Alzheimer’s Plan provides the first, genuine sense of hope that we will make progress against and eventually defeat this terrible, debilitating disease,” said Smith. "Alzheimer's destroys lives. It robs individuals of their lives, and takes a tremendous toll on caregivers."

    A disease characterized by steadily deteriorating loss of thinking, reasoning and memory skills, Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia affecting more than 5.4 million people in the United States, including more than 150,000 people in New Jersey. By 2050, it is estimated that nearly 16 million Americans, and a staggering 115 million people worldwide, will have AD. Today Alzheimer’s is the sixth largest cause of death in the United States and the only one in the top 10 still without a means to prevent, slow the progression, or cure the disease. In addition to the suffering patients, Alzheimer’s disease devastates millions more, especially family members who often provide patient care. Some experts estimate that Alzheimer’s currently costs Americans over $183 billion annually in direct costs and could cost over $1 trillion annually by 2050.

    Unless progress is made against this disease, by 2050, the U.S. government will spend $600 billion a year out of Medicare and $200 billion a year in Medicaid on Alzheimer’s alone. In one generation, the Medicare costs of this one disease will be more than America’s entire federal defense budget is now.

    To ensure the National Plan would reflect of the needs of patients and caregivers, input sessions were hosted across the nation, including one last year in Smith’s district in Monmouth County.  (Click here to read the national plan) The plan reflects efforts of the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care, and Services – also created by NAPA – as well as advocates across the country.  For more information on the national plan to address Alzheimer’s disease, visit: www.alzheimers.gov.

    Also pending before this Congress are other bills that compliment the National Plan to address Alzheimer’s and that Smith is working to see passed. Smith authored the Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Act (H.R.1897), which focuses on identifying research that may lead to breakthroughs. Smith joined Congressman Edward J. Markey  (MA-07), his co-chair on the Alzheimer’s Caucus, in introducing the Health Outcomes, Planning and Education (H.O.P.E.) Act  (H.R. 1386) to encourage early Alzheimer’s diagnoses and connect caregivers to information and resources; and, early this month, Smith again joined Markey in introducing the bipartisan Spending Reductions Through Innovations in Therapies (SPRINT) Act (H.R. 3891), which would spur innovation in research and drug development for high-cost, chronic health conditions such as Alzheimer’s through public-private partnerships.