Subject: 12.22.15 Alzheimer's Policy Rollout Talking Points
From: Adrienne Elrod <[email-masked]>
To: Adrienne Elrod <[email-masked]>
Cc: Alexandria Phillips <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2015 13:18:15 -0500
List-Id: <toptalkers.hillaryclinton.com>

*Friends -*

*Today in Iowa, Hillary Clinton will address her plan to find a cure for
Alzheimer's by investing $2 billion annually, and provide more relief for
caregivers. Below is a USA Today article previewing her plan, and attached
are talking points. *

*As always, please let us know if you have any questions. *

*Thanks!*

*AE*

*Clinton to call for Alzheimer's cure, increase spending to $2 billion
annually*
By Heidi Pryzbala
USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2015/12/22/hillar-clinton-
alzheimers-election-2016-cure/77704834/

As U.S. deaths from Alzheimer’s are exploding, Hillary Clinton wants to
make curing the disease a major issue for the women and minority voters who
are at a disproportionate risk of developing it.

In her last campaign speech Tuesday before the Christmas holiday, Clinton
plans to call for a dramatic increase in federal spending to find a cure
for the only cause of death ranked in America’s top 10 that cannot be
cured, prevented or even slowed, the campaign told USA TODAY. The
Democratic front-runner will propose spending $2 billion a year in an
attempt to cure the degenerative brain disease by 2025, according to a
campaign official who was not authorized to speak publicly ahead of the
announcement.

It’s the first time a presidential candidate has made Alzheimer’s a major
campaign issue, said Robert Egge, executive director of the Alzheimer’s
Impact Movement, whose advocates are leaning on all 2016 campaigns to take
up the issue. None of them has offered specific plans. Clinton's proposal
“makes this a national conversation,” he said.

Clinton plans to make her proposal at a campaign stop in Fairfield, Iowa. On
Monday, Clinton held a conference call with researchers where she
underscored the urgency of raising the disease's profile.

From 2000 to 2013, Alzheimer’s deaths increased 71%, while heart disease
fatalities dropped 14%. Unlike cancer and heart attacks, there is no known
cure. “Alzheimer’s is the red-haired stepchild among the top diseases
threatening the aging and our health care system,” said Alzheimer’s pioneer
Rudolph Tanzi, the neurology professor who discovered many of the genes,
including the first ones, leading to Alzheimer's. He oversees a research
center at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Congress significantly boosted funding levels in 2016, yet it’s still less
than half of what researchers say they need every year. It’s an investment,
they say, that would be recouped in the first three years after discovery
of a treatment. The alternative is an estimated $1.1 trillion in costs for
Medicare, Medicaid and caretakers in 2050.

As Clinton eyes a pivot to a general election campaign, she’s also looking
for issues that transcend different generations and draw in independent
female voters. Although most of the afflicted are older women, their
primary caretakers are younger females carrying emotional and economic
burdens. About 40% of caregivers have a household income of $50,000 or less.

It’s only been recently that researchers recognized how disproportionately
women are afflicted by the disease, Egge said. “This was an eye-opening
moment,” he said.

Almost two-thirds of the people over age 65 who have Alzheimer’s are women,
as are a majority of Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers. Older African
Americans and Hispanics are more likely to develop it than their white
counterparts. Overall, about 5.3 million Americans have the disease,
leading to $226 billion a year in costs. The Food and Drug Administration
has not approved a new compound to treat the disease in more than a decade,
and the potential consequences for public health and the federal budget are
immense.

“This disease has the potential to single-handedly collapse Medicare and
Medicaid,” Tanzi said.

Currently, 18% of Medicare dollars are spent on people living with Alzheimer's
and other dementias, according to anAlzheimer's Association report. Without
advances, Medicare costs will more than quadruple in 2050, accounting for
one in three Medicare dollars.

Clinton’s $2 billion proposal is the target recommended by a broad array of
scientists, and it would bring federal spending more in line with other
major diseases, including HIV and heart disease. The spending deal Congress
passed last week includes a 50% increase in funding for Alzheimer’s
research, pushing funds to $936 million in fiscal 2016. Clinton also will
announce proposals to support caregivers, especially those who give
critical care and support to the millions of families struggling with
Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer's and other dementias are caused by the buildup of microscopic
clumps of a protein fragment called beta-amyloid outside of nerve cells,
which causes twisted strands of a protein called tau to form tangles inside
of nerve cells and to kill them.

Tanzi, named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, has been
on the front lines of fighting the disease. Yet, he says, most of the drug
trials being conducted are from genes his lab discovered in the 1980s and
1990s. In the past 10 years, they’ve discovered nearly two dozen new
Alzheimer's genes and learned what a strong role inflammation plays,
especially in patients who already have the disease. “There’s very little
work going on elucidating those genes, because there’s not enough funding,”
said Tanzi.

Researchers have two main theories as to why women are more susceptible
than men to the disease. One is that menopause leads to energy deficits in
the brain, Tanzi said. The other, which he gives more credence, is that
women are more susceptible to brain inflammation than men, which is also
probably why women suffer more from other brain diseases like multiple
sclerosis, he said.

Some markers for Alzheimer's can be detected 20 years before symptoms
arise, said Tanzi. Yet there's no way to treat it. “It’s an issue people
have swept under the rug,” he said. “We’re just starting to wake up.”

-- 

Adrienne K. Elrod
Director of Strategic Communications & Amplification
Hillary For America
*www.hillaryclinton.com <http://www.hillaryclinton.com>*
@adrienneelrod

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