Paul Tonko: “Absolutely. Representative Garamendi, it only takes one visit, but there have been many visits that I have made to the…”

“Absolutely. Representative Garamendi, it only takes one visit, but there have been many visits that I have made to the centers, the day care center operations that are conducted for individuals and families who are living with Alzheimer's, and to witness and hear the hurt, the confusion, the pain that surrounds the individual. It is enough challenge to try and get this done in as quick a fashion as possible. But if that doesn't move us, the economics on this. You know, we earlier talked about the $214 billion impact in 1 year--some of our most recent data. Well, that is 1 in every 5 Medicare dollars. How much are we willing to have that take over the Medicare expenditures before we come to our senses to say, let's do more in research, let's do a preventive response? Does it need to grow that much more? Does the drain on Medicare, does the reflection of Alzheimer's-related Medicare expenditures need to be that much greater to bring us to a response? The challenges are there, the data are there. We need to move accordingly. Now, earlier, I had expressed that two-thirds of the people living with Alzheimer's, the 3.2 million people, happen to be women. Well, 60 percent of the unpaid caregivers happen to be women. So there needs to be a response here to enable people to be addressed with a sense of compassion, with dignity brought into the equation. It is absolutely essential.…”