Senate Aging Committee Holds Hearing on the Fight Against Alzheimer's Disease

WASHINGTON, DC—The cost to treat those with Alzheimer’s disease is more than $226 billion a year, including $153 billion in costs to Medicare and Medicaid—with the total cost expected to rise to $1.1 trillion in 2050.  Yet, we are currently spending less than three tenths of one percent of that amount on Alzheimer’s research. The fight against Alzheimer’s disease is the topic of today’s hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, led by Chairman Susan Collins and Ranking Member Claire McCaskill.

            Former model, restauranteur, retailer, actor and author, B.Smith is scheduled to testify with her husband, entrepreneur and entertainment executive Dan Gasby.  Ms. Smith has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. 

            In addition, several hundred Alzheimer’s patient advocates from throughout the nation are expected to attend.

            Details of the hearing are as follows:

Senate Special Committee on Aging Hearing:

The Fight Against Alzheimer’s Disease:

Are We on Track to a Treatment by 2025?

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

2:15 PM

Senate Dirksen Room 106

Additional witnesses include: Richard J. Hodes, M.D., Director of the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health; Ronald Petersen, Ph.D., M.D., Director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and Chair of the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care, and Services; Kimberly Stemley, Caregiver and Chief Financial Officer of Rx Outreach in St. Louis, Missouri; and  Heidi R. Wierman, M.D., Division Director of Geriatrics, Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine.

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