459 Organizations and Researchers Call on Congress to Fight Alzheimer’s: “The Need for Action is Urgent.”
WASHINGTON — Today, Congressman Vern Buchanan, Vice Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and Chairman of the Health Subcommittee, announced that 459 leading organizations and researchers with the LEAD Coalition (Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer’s Disease), the Alzheimer’s Association and Alzheimer’s Impact Movement (AIM) shared their support for Buchanan’s Alzheimer’s Screening and Prevention (ASAP) Act (H.R. 6130) and called on members of Congress to support Buchanan’s bill. The ASAP Act would ensure that seniors have timely access to innovative blood-based diagnostic tests that can detect Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in their earliest stages. Read more about the ASAP Act here.
“Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease is key to giving families more time, options and hope,” said Buchanan. “Having served as a caretaker to an elderly parent with Alzheimer’s and with nearly 200,000 seniors in my district, this issue is deeply personal to me. Expanding access to early detection will give millions of Americans the chance to plan ahead and seek care sooner. I’m grateful for the outpouring of support for my Alzheimer’s Screening and Prevention Act and call on my colleagues to pass my bill and ensure every American can benefit from these life-saving innovations.”
“A simple blood test can detect Alzheimer’s before symptoms appear. The bipartisan ASAP Act ensures people benefit from this scientific milestone,” said Robert Egge, Chief Public Policy Officer, Alzheimer’s Association and President, AIM. “Under current law, Medicare cannot cover any dementia screening test for people without symptoms. The ASAP Act clears the roadblock, bringing people closer to timely diagnoses, informed treatment decisions and stronger support for families. We are grateful to the many organizations and researchers standing with us and to the congressional leaders driving this work forward.”
Leading voices within the Alzheimer’s, aging, research, health care and patient advocacy communities signed the letter urging members of Congress to support Buchanan’s ASAP Act, including several Florida-based researchers: Steven T. DeKosky, MD, Deputy Director of the McKnight Brain Institute and Professor Of Neurology and Neuroscience at the University of Florida College of Medicine; Amanda G. Smith, MD, Director of Clinical Research at the University of South Florida’s Byrd Alzheimer's Institute; and Gopal Thinakaran, PhD, Eric Pfeiffer Endowed Chair in Alzheimer’s Research at the Morsani College of Medicine at the University of South Florida.
“The LEAD Coalition (Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer’s Disease), the Alzheimer’s Association, and Alzheimer’s Impact Movement (AIM) strongly support the ASAP Act and urge you to become a cosponsor,” wrote the signatories in the letter. “We appreciate your ongoing commitment to addressing Alzheimer’s disease and related forms of dementia and look forward to continued collaboration to promote risk reduction, strengthen early detection, improve access to care, and enhance quality of life for individuals and families affected by dementia.”
Read the full letter here or below.
Dear Representative,
We appreciate your continued engagement in addressing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, which remain among the most pressing public health challenges facing our nation. Congressional leadership has been instrumental in elevating dementia as a bipartisan priority and advancing policies that are beginning to improve outcomes for individuals, families, and the broader health care system.
On behalf of millions of Americans living with or at risk for dementia, as well as their families, we respectfully urge your support for the bipartisan Alzheimer’s Screening and Prevention (ASAP) Act (H.R. 6130 / S.3267). This legislation would authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to allow Medicare coverage for blood-based dementia screening tests, creating a clear and predictable clinical pathway for access to emerging detection tools.
The need for action is urgent. More than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s dementia, a number that continues to rise. In 2025 alone, health and long-term care costs associated with Alzheimer’s and other dementias were projected to total $384 billion, excluding the enormous contribution of unpaid caregivers (an estimated economic value of $413.5 billion in 2024). Medicare and Medicaid are expected to shoulder nearly two-thirds of these costs, while families are projected to pay $97 billion out of pocket. By 2050, total dementia-related health care and long-term care costs are expected to approach $1 trillion, placing unsustainable pressure on families, employers, and public programs alike.
The American public strongly supports earlier detection and screening of dementia. Nearly four in five Americans report they would want to know if they had Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms become disruptive, and more than nine in ten favor access to a simple medical test that enables earlier diagnosis, care planning, and treatment decisions.
Scientific advances are rapidly transforming the landscape of detection and care for Alzheimer’s and related forms of dementia. Changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease – which can begin developing 20 years before the onset of clinical symptoms – are detectable via blood tests. Especially with the availability of disease-modifying therapies and rigorous scientific evidence supporting non-pharmacological risk reduction interventions, it is essential to ensure individuals receive early and accurate diagnoses. The ASAP Act would help ensure that Medicare beneficiaries can access FDA-approved or cleared blood biomarker screening tests without unnecessary delays, while fully preserving CMS’s existing evidence-based coverage determination processes.
Without the clear coverage pathway enabled by the ASAP Act, it could take many years for Medicare to cover new dementia screening tools, even after FDA approval. The ASAP Act addresses this gap, helping to align scientific innovation with access and allowing individuals and their families to benefit sooner from advances in early detection and care.
For these reasons, the LEAD Coalition (Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer’s Disease), the Alzheimer’s Association, and Alzheimer’s Impact Movement (AIM) strongly support the ASAP Act and urge you to become a cosponsor. We appreciate your ongoing commitment to addressing Alzheimer’s disease and related forms of dementia and look forward to continued collaboration to promote risk reduction, strengthen early detection, improve access to care, and enhance quality of life for individuals and families affected by dementia.
To learn more about the ASAP Act or to become a co-sponsor, please contact the offices of Senator Collins, Senator Cortez Masto, Congressman Buchanan, or Congressman Tonko.
