Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, as a geriatric nurse practitioner, I have had the privilege of taking care of our Greatest Generation in various long-term care facilities, including many patients with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Currently, more than 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease. This disease denies millions of families the opportunity to cherish memories and robs people of their ability to remember their family members and loved ones. Until 6 days ago, all FDA-approved Alzheimer's drugs merely targeted the symptoms of the disease, never its progression. Thankfully, last Wednesday, the FDA issued a long-awaited approval of Leqembi, the first-of-its- kind drug that changes the underlying course of early Alzheimer's disease. This drug, which has shown promising results of slowing the progression of Alzheimer's by more than 25 percent over 18 months, will be fully available to Medicare patients, but providers will have to enter patients into a registry to collect information, and many families will still have to pay a significant out-of-pocket copay. It is imperative that CMS continues to find ways to lift these barriers to this life-changing treatment and that CMS also changes its policy to allow for more than one PET scan, which has the ability to detect the amyloid plaque that causes Alzheimer's disease.…”