California Biomedical Industry - California Healthcare Institute

Alzheimer’s diseaseLegislator profileRep. Linda Sanchez andRep. Loretta Sanchez confrontAlzheimer’s diseaseThe United States, like many othercountries, has an aging population withnearly one in five residents expected tobe 65 years or older in 2030. Even nonlife-threatening age-related conditionsare expected to put unprecedentedpressure on private insurers and publicprograms, including Medicare andMedicaid. Yet what concerns manyanalysts most is the imminent increasein dementia caused by Alzheimer’sdisease and other conditions. Anestimated 660,000 Californians willbe living with the condition in 2025— a 50 percent increase over thenumber of cases in 2000 — and 16million Americans are expected to haveAlzheimer’s by 2050.The costs of caring for those withdementia will be enormous. In 2010,total payments for healthcare andlong-term care services for people aged65 and older with Alzheimer’s diseaseand other dementias are expected tobe $172 billion. And those numbers donot include the contributions of unpaidcaregivers, which also total in thebillions of dollars.Few have a better appreciation forthe impending healthcare crisis thando two sisters from Orange County.Representatives Loretta (47th district)and Linda (39th district) Sanchezrepresent their respective districts inthe U.S. House of Representatives. Assuch, they are responsible for leadingthe country in a fiscally responsibleand sustainable way while addressingtheir constituents’ concerns. Giventhe economic and political climate,legislators and policy makers inWashington and at the state and locallevels are seeking ways to cut spending,which makes addressing future costs ofdementia a particular challenge.Raising the issue further for theSanchez sisters is the fact thatAlzheimer’s disease is about 1.5 timesmore prevalent in the Latino populationthan among Caucasians. It also tendsto manifest nearly 10 years earlier inLatinos than in other ethnic groups.The legislators represent heavily Latinoconstituencies.At the same time, the sisters havelearned firsthand the costs andchallenges that families face when aloved one is living with dementia.“We started to notice that things werewrong in late 2002, early 2003,” LindaSanchez said of her father, Ignacio. “Hewas having to write notes for himself— Post-its — for tasks he’d alwaysautomatically done. He started losinghis keys…and he would get angry overminor irritations, which was not at alltypical for him.” The father of seven andthe owner and operator of a machineshop, Ignacio “Nacho” Sanchez hadbeen a patient and reasonable man,Linda Sanchez said.Loretta Sanchez said that their fatheralso grew paranoid. “He was suresomeone was coming into his house tosteal things. He’d hide his toothbrushso no one would take it.” Later, whenit was not where it belonged, he wasconvinced someone had stolen it.The Sanchez family was fortunate, thesisters said, that they have had both thefinancial means to care for their fatherand the built-in manpower. With hiswife, seven children and their familiesclose by, Ignacio Sanchez was able tolive in his own home for the first fiveyears. “We took turns on weekly chores”such as shopping, cleaning and laundry,Linda Sanchez said, and made a pointof checking on him as they could duringthe week.“When it became clear that he couldn’tbe alone,” Linda Sanchez said, “hemoved in with our brother [Mike], andwe took turns on ‘weekend duty.’” Shesaid that among Latinos, families areculturally obligated to take care of their32 | California Biomedical Industry 2011 Report