Florida Senate - 2017                            (NP)    SR 1548
       
       
        
       By Senator Stewart
       
       
       
       
       
       13-00836A-17                                          20171548__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution recognizing June 18-24, 2017, as
    3         “Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Awareness Week” in
    4         Florida.
    5  
    6         WHEREAS, Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of
    7  death in the United States, killing more people than breast
    8  cancer and prostate cancer combined, and
    9         WHEREAS, 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s
   10  disease, the vast majority of whom are 65 years of age and
   11  older, and
   12         WHEREAS, the Alzheimer’s Association reports Florida had
   13  the second highest prevalence rate of Alzheimer’s disease in the
   14  nation in 2016, with more than 510,000 Floridians living with
   15  the disease and that number expected to rise to 720,000 by 2025,
   16  and
   17         WHEREAS, the Alzheimer’s Association projects that, in the
   18  absence of the development of medical interventions to prevent
   19  or cure the disease, the number of Americans living with
   20  Alzheimer’s disease will nearly triple by 2050, and
   21         WHEREAS, Alzheimer’s disease is the only disease among the
   22  top 10 causes of death in the nation which cannot be prevented,
   23  cured, or slowed, and
   24         WHEREAS, in 2015, family members and friends for each
   25  person living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of
   26  dementia collectively provided 18.1 billion hours of unpaid care
   27  to all such patients, and approximately two-thirds of these
   28  caregivers were women and more than one-third were 65 years of
   29  age or older, and
   30         WHEREAS, the Alzheimer’s Association reports that
   31  Alzheimer’s disease is one of the costliest chronic diseases,
   32  with total payments nationally for health care, long-term care,
   33  and hospice estimated at $236 billion in 2016, and
   34         WHEREAS, nationwide, nearly one in five Medicare dollars is
   35  spent on people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms
   36  of dementia, and by 2050 that ratio is expected to increase to
   37  one in every three dollars, with total costs rising to more than
   38  $1 trillion, and
   39         WHEREAS, the Alzheimer’s Association estimates that in 2016
   40  the cost to Florida’s Medicaid program to care for people with
   41  Alzheimer’s disease was $2.336 million, NOW, THEREFORE,
   42  
   43  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   44  
   45         That June 18-24, 2017, is recognized as “Alzheimer’s
   46  Disease and Dementia Awareness Week” in Florida.