Than 226 billion a year, including 153 billion in costs to medicare and medicaid. These costs will skyrocket as the baby boom generation ages. Already our nations most costly disease, alzheimers is projected to cost more than 1. 1 2050 if nothing is done to change its current trajectory. Alzheimers is also one of our nations leading causes of death. The cdc lists alzheimers as the sixth leading cause of death overall, and the fifth leading cause of death for those 65 and older. Other estimates put the mortality rate much higher at number three, right behind cancer and Heart Disease. Moreover and most frustrating alzheimers is the only one of our nations deadliest diseases without an effective means of prevention, treatment or a cure. It is now estimated that nearly 1 in 2 of the baby boomers reaching age 85 will develop alzheimers. As a consequence, chances are that the members of my generation will either be spending our golden years with alzheimers, or caring for someone who has it. In many ways alzheimers has become the defining disease of this generation. If we are to prevent alzheimers from becoming the defining disease of the next generation it is imperative that we dramatically increase our investment in Alzheimers Research. Just take a look at this lx chart. At a time when the United States is spending an astonishing 226 billion a year to care for people with alzheimers, we are spending less than. 3 of that amount, less than 600 million a year, on research. And believe it or not, thats an increase that many of us have worked for. You can barely see the expenditure level on that chart. Alzheimers receives funding that is clearly disproportionate disproportionately low compared to its human and economic toll. Look at the second chart. We currently spend 5. 4 billion a year for cancer research. 3 billion a year for research on hiv aids and 2 billion for cardiovascular research. All investments that have paid dividends. These investments in research for other diseases have yielded tremendous results. Patients have access to new treatments. Death rates for some diseases are decreasing. Yet at the same time mortality due to alzheimers is escalating can do more for alzheimers and other diseases of dementia given their tremendous human and economic price. Fortunately, there is Promising Research that holds hope for alzheimers patients and their families. The Research Community is poised to make important advances through Clinical Trials and investigating new therapeutic targets. But Adequate Funding is critical to advance this research. The National Plan to address alzheimers disease says its primary goal to effect and effectively treat alzheimers disease by 2025. To meet that goal, the chairman of the Advisory Committee on Alzheimers Research care and services, dr. Ron peterson whom we will hear from shortly told our Committee Last congress that we will need to devote at least 2 billion a year to Alzheimers Research. Well, at first blush, that may seem like a lot of money. But when you compare it to that chart, 26 billion that were spending caring for people with alzheimers . Its less than 1 . And thats the context that we need to put it in. And thats why ive introduced a resolution with several of my colleagues stating that the senate will strife to double the amount of funding that our country spends on alzheimers in fiscal year 2016 and develop a plan to meet the target of 2 billion over the next five ye or perhaps tomorrow, the budget is on the florida. I also will be offering an amendment to the budget which im pleased to say is cosponsored by my Ranking Member, senator mccaskill as well and senator warner, senator toomey, and senator manchin. And we will also be calling on the budget to reflect that kind of investment. This is an investment that we simply must make to alleviate suffering and to prevent our Health Care Programs from going bankrupt. I want to acknowledge all of the advocates who are here today from all over the country. We need your help. We need you to educate members of congress and we hope that your presence today will be a powerful statement to all of our colleagues that they too, need to help us solve this devastating disease. Senator mccaskill. Thank you. I want to thank the chairman for her commitment to this issue. I think it speaks volumes to the people in this room that the chairman has scheduled this hearing so early in her tenure as the chair of this committee. That should be a signal to you that she is committed and i can assure her and you that i, too, am committed to the issues that she has eloquently outlined in her opening statement. I think that with the chairman as an advocate on your belaugh, we are in a very good place. I also want to thank all of you for being here today. From all across the country. Your spirit is inspiring. You have faced enormous personal challenges. Years of frustration pain sorrow sorrow, moments of hopelessness, and yet you find the strength to come here from all over the country and make your voices be heard. It is democracy at its finers hour hour as far as i am concerned. I look forward to hearing the testimony from from a member of the Witness Panel that is from the missouri delegation here in washington today. Kim stinley. I will have an opportunity to introduce her more thoroughly in a few moments but shes here as a caregiver. And her experience in nav gave the navigating the financial medical and housing system is probably more than anyone in this room. At one point many people believed that alzheimers disease was a normal part of aging process and that Treatment Options were either hopeless or unnecessary. We now know today thats just flat wrong. If we make the investments now we can in fact make treatment effective and we can make those treatments available to millions of americans and in fact citizens of the world. Effective treatments are necessary to alleviate the tremendous human, economic and medical toll that this disease poses on our nations families. We need to do something soon because this is a crisis. The cost for alzheimers patients is set to reach 1 trillion over 1 trillion in just 2050. Just think about that. 1 trillion. That is not a sustainable cost for individuals, families or our federal budget. Family care gives are the Unsung Heroes of the alzheimers epidemic. They provide the largest position of care for individuals with the disease. Care gives typically experience more stress, anxiety and lost productivity as a result of their increases responsibilities. While family caregivers provide needed support for their loved ones for as long as they can many patients in the later stages of the disease require roundtheclock care and are moved to nursing homes. According to the cdc, nearly half of all nursing home residents in the United States have residents with alzheimers disease. And with a few longterm care financing options, many families in fact probably most families depend on the Medicaid Program for their nursing home funds. It is estimated that 28 of the Medicaid Budget is spent on longterm care services. Much of that for alzheimers patients. I know that ms. Stimley can speak of some of the challenges of accessing medicare in help for her mom. By the way, her mom worked hard all of her life and retired with a tension but that a pension but that was not enough to cover the high cost of the care. This week we veetote on a budget. The budget we are currently debating does massive cuts to medicaid. Nursing home care and other Health Care Services for seniors and disabled would be slashed by 5. 4 billion in missouri alone. To the budget that were currently debating. These are middle class families that would be devastated by these cuts. I also want to echo the statements of the chairman about research. Government investment in medical research has allowed our nation to be a beacon to the world for hope. For a medical advancement. For being the country that is looked to. And that adds to our National Security. Because we are seen as such a leader in the world on medical research. Funding to National Institutes of health has flattened and suffered over the previous years. I am hopeful that the amendment that i am cosponsoring with the chairman will be a moment of bipartisan agreement that we cannot continue to shirk our responsibility in the United States to advancing medical research. There is no airrizonair area that is more deserving for additional dollars for medical research than alzheimers. All that said, those are problems facing families once theyve learned of the diagnosis. Yesterday the Alzheimers Association released their 2015 facts and figures report that found that about half of all people with alzheimers disease or their caregivers are not even aware of their diagnoses. Thats incredibly troubling. We cant go back to the old days when people were not properly informed of their diagnosis and a misguided attempt to spare them the truth. Not only are many individuals not being alerted their diagnoses, but many believe the mortality rate for alzheimers patients is much higher than projected. A study done by researchers at Rush UniversityMedical Center found that alzheimers is now likely the third leading cause of dideath in the u. S. I look forward to hearing the testimony from our panel of witnesses about how we can confront the looming challenges and plan for reaching treatment by 2025. Thank you again for your leadership chairman collins. Also thank all of you for being here today. Thank you very much senator mccaskill. Senator moran is also a cosponsor of the amendment that well be offering to the budget for those of you from kansas out there. I just want to make sure i corrected the record. Madam claire . May i be added as a cosponsor . Is there absolutely. Id be delighted. I want to also say that im so glad that senator tillis from north carolina, senator blumenthal from connecticut, and senator donnelly from indiana from joined us today. I know they care deeply about this issue. We now turn to the testimony of our panel. Im pleased that joining us today, and on the Witness Panel, are barbara better known as b smith and her husband. B is a well known super model whos graced the cover of fashion magazines. Shes also an accomplished restauranteur for those of us who have eaten at her restaurant at Union Station know that. Retailer actor, and author. But nowhere are her grace, beauty and courage more evident than in her fight against early onset alzheimers disease. Dan gatsby is an entrepreneur, television producer, and entertainment executive and has stood by his wifes side every step of the way. By sharing their story miss smith and her husband are helping to make a real difference and we thank you. Next we will hear from dr. Richard hotus, who is the director of the National Institute on aging at the National Institutes of health. He also represents nih on the hhs secretarys federal Advisory Council on Alzheimers Disease Research, cure and services. He also coordinates the nih Research Efforts under the National Plan to address alzheimers. We will then hear from dr. Ronald peterson, whom i mentioned previously. He is the director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimers Disease Research Center and the mayo clinic study of aging. In 2011 he was appointed to serve as chair of the Advisory Committee. Kimberly stimley has already been introduced by our Ranking Member. She is from st. Louis and will be talking about the challenges that our nations many caregivers of alzheimers patients face every day. We welcome you as well. And, finally it is a great pleasure to welcome to the committee dr. Heidi weirman who is here with us here today. For more than ten years she has served as a geriatric physician at maine Medical Center in portland, maine. And specialized in the challenges both physicians and care givers face when caring for an alzheimers patient. Again it is truly touching to see the sea of purple gathered in the hearing room today. But it is also a stark reminder of how many individuals and families lives are effected by alzheimers. So i want to thank the advocates who have traveled to washington. We look forward to hearing from the testimony and we will start with b. Smith. Thank you all for having us here today. I have i havent been spending a lot of time down here. But im getting back on the saddle these days. So its been a tough time for me because i do have early onset alzheimers disease. And im here because i want to make a difference. Im here because i dont want anybody else to have to go through this. Im here to ask you to make a difference, not just for the 5 million americans who alzheimers and their care givers but for the future generations who will face that. This has been this has been something that is very new to me because ive been so healthy for such a long time that ive never had anything like that. But what im going to do is im going to fight. Im going to do exactly what i can to be the best and to be better than the other person that i really even was. So that there are lots and lots of people out there who are probably feeling the way im feeling. Like, this should never have happened to me that type of feeling. Im sure there are many of that type of people. But there are many problems out here also. And i feel that im ready to work. Im ready to do what i have to do to be the best that i can be and to help as many people that i can help. And if i have to tell somebody that they shouldnt do something because, ill do it. And they will tell me i want to do it or i dont want to do it. But its important to me. Its always been health and wellness has been something that has been a big part of my life and a part of helping young people. And so today im excited to be here, im happy to be here. And i thank you very much. Ive got a lot to do in my future and im going to do it. And im going to do it the best way i can. And if i can help people and they can help me and we can do it together, even thats fine. But however we do it we just have to do it. Thank you so much. Mr. Gasby. Thank you chairman collins. I want to thank you for having me. Ranking member mccaskey and to the members of the committee, i love my country. Proud to be an american. Im a kid from brooklyn. And i never thought i would have an opportunity to try to make a difference. And this is the one time that i know that i can make a difference. Because ive seen what my wife has gone through. Ive seen a woman who virtually could do everything, who could sing, who could dance who could look at food and taste it and then cook it exactly the way it could be in a cookbook. Who did a television show, who did a hundred radio and television commercials, who basically always gave back. And now has to wait and help wait for people to help her. You know im reminded of a song that of all people jayz and kanye west wrote. And there is a lyric in there called the pain aint cheap. And the pain aint cheap for the five million americans who are suffering with the alzheimers disease. The pain is not cheap for the 15 million care givers that each and every day, every waking hour have to struggle as we do as a couple. My best friend. Watching her get up, try to do things, look me in the eye and say honey im broken. And when you see someone that you know knows that they cant do what their body and their mind has told them for 55 60 years, you realize that you have got to try to step out, step up and make a difference. Im here to tell you that the pain is not cheap because if we dont do something now the price we are going to pay 10, 15 years down the road or 2050 when it is estimated that 15 Million People will have alzheimers and as you have so accurately said the cost will be over a trillion dollars. You know the greatest resource that we have in our country is our intellectual ability. The greatest resource that we have in our country is a twoparty system, a democracy that works. The greatest resource we have is what we learn from generation to generation that we pass down. When you have alzheimers what you have is people lose that perspective. People in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond. You lose the ability to give people behind them the sense of accomplishment the sense of understanding and the sense of hope. You know, we have a modern day social tsunami. This is what alzheimers is. And when you look at it. When you look at what my wife has gone through. When you look at whats ravaging the African American community, im twice as likely to have alzheimers as my you know, caucasian counterpart. When you look at the fact that within that community my community, were getting tested and treated and found at a later stage. So the chances of being able to retard or handle the situation is going to be more costly than ever. You realize that weve got to stop it right now. Now, weve invested millions of dollars, billions of dollars as you said earlier in Heart Disease and cancer but we pay a pittance to alzheimers disease. And we know that by using a pet scan we can determine amyloid beta plaque in the brain. And if we find out that has happened, we can begin the process of taking care of ourselves through diet, exercise holistic practices and through that we may be able to ward off or slow down. So that we can allow what government funding and the intellectual capacity we have in this country to develop the means and the methods to make a differenc