Political Quotes

“Mr. Tonko, thank you so very much for your bringing to us the information about actions that have already been taken. The Alzheimer's plan that you discussed lays out a process by which the National Institutes of Health will develop a program of research, bring it directly to Congress so that we can then analyze it and hopefully fund that research. It is the pragmatic way of dealing with it. As you said, it is based upon a studied step-by-step process to get to the solution of Alzheimer's. There is also other legislation. Our former colleague, now Senator Markey, put together a bill that is called the HOPE Act, and that is one that would require that Medicare take specific account of Alzheimer's, and that in the Medicare program, there be a method for Medicare to fund early diagnosis of Alzheimer's and then the early treatment. As was said by one of our colleagues earlier, a delay of a couple of years or 3 or 4 years in the onset of serious Alzheimer's is extraordinarily beneficial to the individual and to the family, and, in a larger context, to the budget of the individual family, their insurance company, as well as the Federal government through Medicare and Medicaid. So that program also speaks to the caregiving that is necessary and Medicare picking this up. It is clearly going to be the illness that will bust the bank unless we can get ahead of it, and that is where the research comes into focus and into play. We can do this. There is another angle to this.…”