Commentary
The United States spends more than $4 trillion each year on health care, and the vast majority of that spending goes toward chronic and mental health conditions. Alzheimer’s disease alone affects more than 6 million Americans, and the Alzheimer’s Association projects its annual cost could exceed $1 trillion by 2050. Medicare’s long-term strain is no longer abstract.
Yet we continue to approach chronic illness as though it begins at diagnosis.
A patient develops heart failure and sees a cardiologist. Kidney function declines, and a nephrologist intervenes. Memory slips, and a neurologist becomes involved. Each specialist provides valuable care. But by the time patients reach those offices, the biological processes driving their disease have often been progressing quietly for years….