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Alaska delegation boldly supports Alzheimer’s bill

Alaska, with its seemingly endless wilderness, has rightly been dubbed America's "Last Frontier." But it's not America's only last frontier.

Across the country, we are pushing further into the frontier of neuroscience as increased investments from both Congress and the private sector have allowed researchers to explore neurological diseases that have for so long eluded the medical and scientific communities.

Among the most critical of these diseases is Alzheimer's disease.

As the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S., Alzheimer's kills more people than breast and prostate cancer combined. In Alaska, roughly 10 percent of the population aged 65 or older is currently living with the disease, 1 in 3 of whom will die from it.

Without more resources from Congress to fund more scientific breakthroughs and provide better care, the number of people living with Alzheimer's is on track to almost double in Alaska in less than a decade. We need more resources to help people like my family.

Alzheimer's has been in my life for as long as I can remember. I've lost three aunts and my mother to this devastating disease. Like the vast majority of other Americans who provide help to a family member or loved one, my family and I were unpaid caregivers. When it comes to caring for someone with Alzheimer's, the responsibility isn't just emotionally exhausting — it's also financially taxing. I would fly from my home here in Alaska to Colorado to help my father and other siblings provide care. Taking time off work, paying for multiple flights a year, rental cars and more added up.

In 2017 alone, more than 33,000 Alzheimer's caregivers in Alaska provided unpaid care valued at over $479 million, in addition to out-of-pocket costs. Meanwhile, Alzheimer's continues to be the most expensive disease in America, costing the country an estimated $277 billion (including $186 billion in Medicare and Medicaid payments) in 2018, and more than $1.1 trillion by mid-century.

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Alzheimer's is a public health crisis. But as researchers explore this daunting frontier in search of a way to treat or cure this disease, there is more that can be done right now to support the needs of caregivers and those living with Alzheimer's.

Congress is currently considering a bipartisan bill supported by more than half of U.S. senators and more than one-third of U.S. representatives that would strengthen the ability of Alaska and every other state to appropriately address Alzheimer's as the public health crisis it is.

The Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Act, aims to provide state, local, and tribal public health officials with the funding and resources necessary to increase early detection and diagnosis, while also improving Alzheimer's-data collection.

These resources would, in turn, also help reduce risk, prevent avoidable hospitalizations and address health disparities — all of which affect those living with the disease, and their millions of unpaid caregivers.

In particular, this bill would help the many who live in Alaska's rural and isolated communities, where accessing critical health care services and support is often a challenge at best, an impossibility at worst. It would certainly have helped my family, who struggled to get a diagnosis for my mother.

On behalf of the thousands in Alaska and the millions across America who care and advocate for those with Alzheimer's, I would like to thank our entire Congressional delegation for cosponsoring the BOLD Infrastructure of Alzheimer's Act. Alaska Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, as well as Rep. Don Young, have all signed on as co-sponsors of this critical legislation.

Now it's up to senators and elected officials elsewhere who remain on the fence to follow Alaska's lead in ensuring the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Act is passed and signed into law.

Cindy Harris is an Anchorage resident and Alzheimer's Association Ambassador.

The views expressed here are the writer's and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.

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