New blood tests can detect Alzheimer’s before symptoms appear, but Medicare coverage hasn’t caught up to the science.
Rachel Conant
Senior Vice President of Public Policy, Alzheimer’s Association; Executive Director, Alzheimer’s Impact Movement
Forty years ago, scientific innovations to enable early detection of breast cancer existed, but only about 14% of women received mammograms. The technology was there, but access was not. It wasn’t until Congress enabled Medicare to cover mammograms that screening rates surged to more than 70%, helping drive a significant decline in breast cancer deaths.
Today, we are standing at a similar inflection point with Alzheimer’s disease.
A growing crisis
More than 7.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, and nearly two-thirds of them are women. Total annual costs of caring for people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias will reach a record $409 billion this year alone, much of it borne by unpaid caregivers. Last year, 13 million Americans provided more than 19 billion hours of unpaid care, a staggering and often invisible burden.
For decades, Alzheimer’s has been plagued by late diagnosis, after memory loss and other symptoms appear, when families are left to react rather than plan. What many people don’t realize is that Alzheimer’s begins 20 years or more before symptoms emerge.
That reality is now colliding with a breakthrough in science.
Science is finally catching up
Today, simple blood tests can detect Alzheimer’s before symptoms begin. At the same time, new FDA-approved treatments have become available, treatments that are most effective when the disease is caught early. There is a meaningful opportunity to change the trajectory of this disease.
But Americans cannot benefit from these scientific advances without access to them.
Despite the promise of early detection, Medicare cannot currently cover these Alzheimer’s screening blood tests. That gap between innovation and access is where policy must catch up.
How policy can close the gap
A new bill in Congress called the Alzheimer’s Screening and Prevention (ASAP) Act would enable Medicare to cover these as screening tests, helping ensure that scientific progress translates into real-world impact. This is not just about diagnosis. It’s about giving people the ability to make informed decisions about the future of their health, finances, and family.
Nearly 9 in 10 Americans say maintaining brain health as they age is very important, yet only a small fraction feel they know how to do it. Early detection is a critical piece of that equation. It allows individuals and families to plan, to seek treatment, to participate in clinical trials, and to take steps that may slow disease progression.
We have seen what happens when policy aligns with science. When mammograms became widely accessible, early detection improved outcomes and saved lives. That same breakthrough can now be delivered for Alzheimer’s.
A nonpartisan call to action
This is not a partisan issue. Alzheimer’s affects every community, every background, and every political affiliation. It is one of the most pressing public health and economic challenges of our time.
We have the science. We have the tools. Now we need the policies to ensure access. This is our “mammogram moment.”I urge readers to contact their elected officials and ask them to support the ASAP Act, because the sooner we act, the more people will have the chance to take control of their health and their future. To learn more, visit ALZImpact.org/ASAP_Act.
