Hillary Clinton Proposes Doubling Spending on Alzheimer’s Research

This past fall, Hillary Clinton met Keith F. Thompson, a librarian in New Hampshire who explained that he couldn’t afford full-time care for his 84-year-old mother who has Alzheimer’s. Grasping Mrs. Clinton’s hands, Mr. Thompson said that he had to take his mother to work with him.

Mrs. Clinton began to tear up at his story, which she has retold on the campaign trail ever since. On Tuesday she did something about it.

Mrs. Clinton proposed a $2 billion-a-year investment in Alzheimer’s research, more than double the amount in the recently passed appropriations bill, to combat the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States.

The plan, which would be paid for by changes in the tax code, emerged out of conversations with voters who regularly ask Mrs. Clinton about Alzheimer’s at town-hall-style events in Iowa and New Hampshire.

“We owe it to the millions of families who stay up at night worrying about their loved ones afflicted by this terrible disease and facing the hard reality of the long goodbye to make research investments that will prevent, effectively treat and make a cure possible by 2025,” Mrs. Clinton said in a statement.

The proposal comes weeks after Mrs. Clinton proposed a tax credit to middle-class families caring for sick loved ones. Roughly five million Americans have Alzheimer’s, and by 2050 that number is expected to grow to 15 million, disproportionately affecting women and minorities, according to data from the Alzheimer’s Association.

President Obama has increased the investment in Alzheimer’s research and support services, and the appropriations bill for the 2016 fiscal year that Congress approved last week allocated $886 million, a $300 million jump.

Mrs. Clinton framed her proposal around ultimately not just saving lives, but in the long run, saving money. Because of the long-term nature of the disease, Alzheimer’s is one of the most expensive burdens on the health care system. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that in 2010, direct health care expenses for dementia, including nursing home care, were $109 billion; the indirect cost, such as lost income by family members providing care at home, was at least $50 billion.

Robert Egge, the executive director of the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement, said on a conference call held by the campaign that the pivotal question was: “Can we change the trajectory we’re on?”

Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, a neurology professor at Harvard Medical School and an expert in genetics and aging, who was also on the call, said, “This is a tsunami, an epidemic that could crush Medicare and Medicaid.”

Mrs. Clinton, who as a senator from New York was a co-chairwoman of the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s disease, was scheduled to discuss the details of the plan at events Tuesday in Iowa, in Keota and Fairfield.

She is the first presidential candidate on either side to unveil a plan to combat the disease, though Jeb Bush, a Republican, has spoken about his mother-in-law’s struggle with dementia.

“She’s a gift from God, and she’s 94 years old,” he told voters in Portsmouth, N.H. “There’s one place where we have significantly underfunded, and that is Alzheimer’s,” Mr. Bush said when discussing entitlement reform.

Republicans have criticized Mrs. Clinton for proposing expensive government programs, including investing in infrastructure and making college more affordable, without revealing specifics about how to pay for them. On Saturday, Mrs. Clinton was the only candidate in the Democratic debate who pledged not to raise taxes on the middle class.

But her Alzheimer’s plan drew bipartisan support. Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, praised the proposal. “I lost my mother, Marjorie, to Alzheimer’s in 2010 after an 11-year battle with this horrible disease,” Mr. Warner wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. “Answers are within our reach, and I applaud and share Hillary Clinton’s focus.”

Newt Gingrich, a Republican and the former speaker of the House who pushed for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, wrote on Twitter: “I often disagree with Hillary Clinton, but on Alzheimer’s she is moving in the right direction.”