This holiday season, more than 11 million Americans will sit at the table with a loved one living with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. As Charles Sauer writes in BizPac Review, these moments are more than emotional — “they are a policy failure playing out in millions of American homes.”
Alzheimer’s is not only devastating for families; it is an economic crisis accelerating toward a breaking point. Today, Alzheimer’s and dementia cost families and taxpayers over $300 billion annually, a figure projected to reach the trillions as cases double to 14 million by 2060. Without reform, this burden will overwhelm caregivers first — and the federal budget next.
A System Built to Delay Care Instead of Deliver It
Sauer underscores a fundamental flaw in our health system: it actively slows down early detection and treatment.
Breakthrough blood-based biomarker tests can now detect Alzheimer’s years before symptoms, in what the FDA defines as Stages 1 and 2. Early detection gives patients the chance to pursue evidence-based lifestyle interventions and, when appropriate, medical treatments that can slow decline.
Yet as Sauer notes:
“Even if the FDA clears these tests for this new use, these diagnostics would remain out of reach for millions because Medicare and private payers would refuse to cover them.”
Outdated Medicare rules allow coverage only for diagnostics specifically authorized by Congress or recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force — a process that lags years behind scientific progress. Private insurers follow Medicare’s lead, creating a nationwide policy bottleneck that denies families access to modern tools.
The Bipartisan ASAP Act Is the First Real Fix
The Alzheimer’s Screening and Prevention (ASAP) Act, recently introduced in the House, would cut through this bureaucratic gridlock.
“The ASAP Act would modernize this outdated system by allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to cover the FDA-approved biomarker tests.”
This change would unlock diagnostic access for 70 million Medicare beneficiaries and create a national coverage standard for private insurers. Voters see the urgency:
• 83% of voters in swing districts say early detection saves taxpayer dollars.
• 90% say Medicare should cover these tests.
Treatment Barriers Are Just as Damaging
Even when patients are diagnosed early, payer-created roadblocks continue. Medicare currently imposes an unprecedented registry requirement on FDA-approved Alzheimer’s treatments, forcing doctors to upload patient data into a federal database before prescribing care.
Sauer highlights the consequences:
“Small and rural clinics struggle to comply, and private insurers replicate Medicare’s restrictions… ensuring patients face barriers at every turn.”
Voters agree this must change — 92% say Medicare should eliminate these unnecessary restrictions.
Time for Congress to Lead
A modern Alzheimer’s strategy requires three pillars:
- Early detection
- Lifestyle and medical interventions
- Timely access to treatment
The ASAP Act is a major step toward aligning coverage with today’s science, not yesterday’s bureaucracy.
As Sauer writes:
“If nothing changes, Alzheimer’s cases will climb to 14 million by 2060 — bankrupting families first and the federal budget next.”
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Congress can seize this bipartisan moment, support early detection, fix outdated coverage rules, and ensure patients benefit from American scientific leadership.
This holiday season, as families confront the painful reality of Alzheimer’s at their own tables, lawmakers should remember: the cost of inaction is not abstract — it is human.
Read the full article at BizPac Review by clicking here.
