Where's the War on Alzheimer's?

I saw this excellent article in the  Jan/Feb 2015 AARP Bulletin by T.R.Reid concerning the rapid growth of Alzheimer's in the country, and the relative lack of expenditure by the Government to try and find a prevention or cure for the disease.
See this link: AARP Bulletin - January/February 2015 - Page 14-15
The article shows projections of over 13 million patients costing over a trillion dollars per year to care for by 2045.  It also points out that there has NEVER been any patient cured of the disease.   Meanwhile, the US Government is spending around $566 Million on research into the cause and cure of Alzheimer's disease.
Spending on research can sometimes be a waste.  For example, there are some problems that we could dump immense amounts of money to solve, but there are no viable paths to study.  So spending more money would generally result in massive waste. .  In the case of Alzheimer's however, according to this article there are some potentially fruitful studies that could be done to hopefully find a cure.  The Alzheimer's association believes that there is a need for about $2 Billion in spending per year to get to a cure.
As in many cases of spending on research, it is a gamble.  By putting money into research, we would be betting that a cure would be found that would avoid the costs in dollars and lost lives that would more than pay off in the long run.  If AARPs projections are correct, expending $2 Billion per year now could help avoid some or all of the possible $1 Trillion/per year in future cost.  That sounds like a good payoff!  I really think the US should be spending more on this important problem.  It should be at least proportional to the impact of the disease on the US population.  Apparently we're spending $5.4 Billion on cancer, and $1.2 Billion on heart disease, and the cost impact of those diseases is probably lower than the cost impact of Alzheimer's disease.  Below are the costs in 2014 of the disease in the United States according to the Alzheimer's Association

Sadly, the article points out that many of the existing medications and therapies don't work all that well in slowing down the progress of the disease.  At one time it was thought that daily aspirin, daily physical exercise, and brain exercise puzzles might prevent the disease.  But none of these appeared to have any statistical significance in tests. The world needs a medical solution to the problem!

In Sep 2015, Bradley Fikes of Union Tribune reported on a new breakthrough in the understanding of how Alzheimer's works in the brain, which will hopefully lead to new techniques to prevent or cure the disease.  

I would think that the rest of the world is experiencing the same problem with the rising cost of this horrible disease.  Therefore, other countries should be more than willing to share in the cost and participating in the research.  I wonder if there are international efforts to coordinate research so we can minimize waste and share findings.  However, I would bet that "big pharma" is also working hard on this problem.  If one of the companies does discover a "magic pill" that could prevent a person from getting the disease, or cure a patient with the disease, it could be worth a lot!  However, I hope we don't get into a situation where the treatment could cost $100,000 per patient.

‘America’s Bitter Pill,’ by Steven Brill - NYTimes.com

I saw 60 minutes this evening where Leslie Stahl interviewed Steven Brill of the New York Times.  Apparently he has written a new book about how the medical "industry" is now making huge profits from Obamacare --even "non profit" hospital businesses are "profiting" by paying their executives extremely high salaries, which, in turn drives up the costs.

Here is a link to the book review.

‘America’s Bitter Pill,’ by Steven Brill - NYTimes.com


After seeing this 60 minutes piece and reading the book review, I also read the book.  On the surface, the book is simply a chronological description of the development, passing and implementation of the Affordable Care Act.  It doesn't sound too exciting?    It describes step-by-step who was involved in the development and writing of the law, how it got modified in order to pass, and then how the implementation of the law unfolded, including the development of the healthcare.gov website.  However, I did find it somewhat exciting even though I knew what happened.  Brill was able to make the story interesting by providing some personal information about each of the major players, so we understood better about the motivations behind each individuals position or role.

I think  it is a shame that all of our US Congress and Senators didn't pull together to help develop the Affordable Care Act in a cooperative spirit.  Yes, it is possible that there are flaws in the law.  It may have been better if all sides worked to make necessary corrections.  After the act was passed, and problems were identified, it would have been good to have congress pass minor changes to the act to make those necessary corrections.  As it is, hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of hours have been spent fighting against the act and wasting lawyers and judges time on somewhat trivial problems or flaws in the wording.

I don't understand who is against the act, or who is behind the vehement effort the Republicans have mounted to fight against the law.  I can't see how any businesses involved in the health care industry would be against it.  They are ALL making lots of money, as are the CEOs.  Hospitals, insurance companies, doctors, pharmaceuticals, medical device manufacturers are all making seemingly windfall profits from the law.  States are getting assistance from the Federal Government to improve the health of all of their citizens.  More of our citizens are now contributing to their own health care by paying for their insurance.  Because more people have insurance, more Americans are able to obtain preventative health care which should eventually reduce the overall cost.  What is not to like?  I have tried to read and listen to the complaints issued by the Republican Party as they have continually tried to stop or repeal the Affordable Care Act with many different parliamentary and legal procedures.  They all say it is bad --but they never have been able to explain why and even when they have presented alternative approaches, it is clear that the alternatives have not been thought through.