Lawmakers behind bipartisan push for legislation detecting and preventing Alzheimer’s: ‘It’s too expensive not to’

House Reps. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), co-sponsors of the Alzheimer’s Screening and Prevention (ASAP) Act, said Thursday that proactively addressing Alzheimer’s disease is “too expensive” of an issue for Congress to ignore.

Appearing at The Hill’s “Getting a Diagnosis ASAP: Progress in Early Alzheimer’s Detection” event on Thursday, the two congressmen discussed why their bill, the ASAP Act, is crucial.

“I think our whole health care system is backwards. We react to things instead of being proactive,” Buchanan told The Hill’s contributing editor, Kathleen Koch.

The disease is personal for Buchanan, whose father had the illness and lived with it for the last decade of his life. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 7 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease.

“The point is to get after these things in the early stages the best we can. And that’s why we’re fighting for this.........

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