AUSTIN — The Senate last week passed a measure intended to create the largest brain health research center in America.
Bill author Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston) said Texas already has the third-most dementia patients in the country — almost half a million — and last year state Medicare costs for dementia care alone topped $4 billion.
As the population of America ages, the number of dementia patients continues to grow, and is projected to reach 82 million patients by 2050. A person over the age of 55 has a 42 percent chance of developing dementia over the course of their life.
More important than cost is the toll the disease takes not only on patients, but on family, friends, and caregivers.
“It robs a person of their thoughts and memories, the very essence of that person,” Huffman said. “It leads to a loss of quality of life and independent function that places an immense burden on families and loved ones and our overall healthcare system.”
Huffman’s bill, SB 5, would create the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT) and would endow it with $3 billion in surplus revenue, in an effort to draw the best and brightest physicians, researchers and experts in the field of dementia to Texas.
Huffman said that the institute would put Texas at the forefront of dementia research.
Huffman told members that Texas is poised to impact research into Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia more than any other state “There is no better place than Texas to take on this challenge,” she said. “We have world class medical centers and researchers and our business-friendly tax and regulatory environment puts Texas at a unique advantage to become the epicenter of biomedical research.”
Under the bill the institute would be governed by a board made up of physicians and scientists with expertise in the field of dementia research. Grants could be awarded for projects addressing the causes, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of dementia patients, as well as new medicines and facilities to help treat sufferers.
Following the initial capitalization of $3 billion in general revenue, future appropriations into the institute would be capped at $300 million per year.
The concept was the idea of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and he said that Texas’ size and economic strength gives it the ability to take on big projects like this.
“Unlike any other state, really, we do have the wherewithal sometimes to do great, big things that impact everybody,” Patrick told legislative members. “Of the surplus dollars we have ... it seems like it could be the best money that we are spending.”
The program is modeled on the successful Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, or CPRIT, which was created in 2009 in order to create a worldclass cancer prevention and treatment center. CPRIT is now a $6 billion institution, the largest cancer research organization in the country and second largest in the entire world.
“I believe that DPRIT will follow this success and position Texas as a national leader in combating dementia and related disorders, accelerating groundbreaking research, and improving the lives of millions of Texans,” Huffman said.
Senate Joint Resolution 3 is the constitutional amendment that proposes establishment of DPRIT and would transfer $3 billion to the Dementia Prevention and Research Fund from state general revenue, to provide funding over the next 10 years. SJR 3 limits appropriations out of the fund to no more than $300 million per fiscal year.
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