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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | June 8, 2023 11:29 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Rosemary M. Brown |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Alzheimer’s and Dementia Infrastructure |
| In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation to enhance, expand and expedite the way in which the Commonwealth addresses Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (ADRD), a growing public health crisis throughout Pennsylvania. There are currently 280,000 Pennsylvanians aged 65 and older living with Alzheimer’s, a number expected to increase to 320,000 by 2025 and grow exponentially from there. ADRD is the most expensive disease and in 2020, total Pennsylvania Medicaid costs of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease was nearly $3.7 billion, a number estimated to increase to over 10% by 2025. Of the total lifetime cost of caring for someone with dementia, 70% is borne by families — either through out-of-pocket health and long-term care expenses or from the value of unpaid care. The burden of caring for individuals with Alzheimer’s and other dementias extends to millions of Americans caring for those with the disease. In 2022, 404,000 unpaid Pennsylvania caregivers provided 646 million hours of care valued at over $10.7 billion. Alzheimer's takes a devastating toll on caregivers. Compared with caregivers of people without dementia, twice as many caregivers of those with dementia indicate substantial emotional, financial and physical difficulties. In totality, these mounting financial, physical and emotional costs threaten to bankrupt families, businesses and our health care system. Pennsylvania released its first comprehensive ADRD State Plan in 2014 and a Task Force was appointed through the Department of Aging in May 2018 to lead its implementation. Despite these efforts however, little progress has been made in a coordinated and collaborative way to improve the state’s overall approach to addressing ADRD throughout the Commonwealth. This growing public health crisis drains physical, emotional and financial health of all impacted including state government resources. Different government agencies administer programs and initiatives that are critical to people living with dementia but these are predominately siloed, with multiple state agencies working separately from one another. Even further, the disease remains largely viewed as an aging issue and often defaults to the Department of Aging to remedy instead of through a coordinated, interdepartmental approach that incorporates a broad spectrum of public-private partnerships necessary to effectively and efficiently address the multi-faceted challenges of this disease. The impact of this disease extends well beyond those aged 60 and older and is why Pennsylvania must combat this disease in the same way public health addresses other leading chronic disease and health conditions. My legislation will create a permanent ADRD Division and establish an ADRD Advisory Committee, both within the Department of Health to convene statewide stakeholders on ADRD State Plan implementation, coordinate across state agencies, advocate policy, secure federal funding, and leverage additional resources to better respond to the unique and complex needs of those living with Alzheimer's and other dementia and the systems that support them. This legislation will create a focused and strategic approach in coordinating public-private solutions, while building in accountability measures to demonstrate progress being made to address this rapidly evolving public health issue. Please join me in cosponsoring this resolution. If you have any questions regarding this legislation, please contact Christine Zubeck in my office at 717-787-6123 or czubeck@pasen.gov. Thank you for your consideration. |
Introduced as SB840