Alzheimer’s affects everybody. Even if you have no direct connection to this disease, you are affected.
One in five Medicare dollars are spent on patients with Alzheimer’s. In 2019 alone, the disease will cost the country $290 billion – a cost that every taxpayer is saddled with. In the United States alone, 5.8 million people are living with Alzheimer’s and another 16 million people are providing uncompensated care for those individuals.
I was one of those 16 million. In 2012, at only 63, my husband George was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. In 2017, when it was no longer possible to care for him at home, I reluctantly placed him in a facility. Of course, the financial burden was difficult, but the emotional burden was devastating. George passed away in February 2018, but every day this horrific disease took part of him from us.
I would not wish this disease on anyone and it is why I advocate with the Alzheimer’s Association, in the hope that this will not be the experience of other families.
I tell you this because we need leadership at the top to tackle this. We need to make sure that anyone who wishes to become president is prepared to take on Alzheimer’s on their first day in office. I encourage everyone who has a loved one living with the disease – or more so, every taxpayer – to ask every presidential candidate what they will do to fight this public health crisis.
KAREN MORAN
Litchfield