The Obama administration announced plans Tuesday for a two-year, $156 million cash infusion for Alzheimer’s research and care. The money will help solidify a still-developing national plan to better treat and even prevent the illness by 2025.
With budget plans just now coming to a head, it’s good news for many of us that Alzheimer’s has become one of the “we can’t wait” initiatives in President Obama’s plan.
Such measures still need to be passed through Congress, and positive advances may not be immediately forthcoming. However, it is heartening to see fiscal support for an issue that affects so many of us and our loved ones.
If all goes to plan and the approach makes it through Congress – a politically trepidatious journey these days even for the most common-sense and appealing legislation – then the budget will earmark an infusion of $156 million for Alzheimer’s research and care.
In many ways it’s the flesh and bones to an earlier announcement from the administration regarding a national plan toward treating Alzheimer’s that came out to some guffaws due it’s lack of a clear source of funding. The full details on allocation are still forthcoming, but at least a small portion of that infusion, some $26 million, is intended for immediate use and care of Alzheimer’s patients. The rest is to go toward research and the hope of improving future care, and also perhaps systematic prevention.
How this news will affect us, and whether it will weather violent political and economic seas is yet to be seen, but it’s a powerful promise for many.
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Reference: The Kaiser Health News (February 7, 2012) “Alzheimer’s Research Gets Funding Boost”