WASHINGTON — More than 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

The association estimates the number of people 65 and older with the disease in Kentucky will rise to 86,000 next year, an increase of nearly 15% since 2020.  

“With a disease where you don’t have a treatment — it’s not cancer, it’s not heart disease — your next best thing that you can give people is education and care planning and time,” said Mackenzie Wallace, public policy director for the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Kentucky & Southern Indiana.

Advocates in Kentucky and beyond are pushing Congress to pass the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Reauthorization Act, extending a 2018 law set to expire this year.  

The goal is to help public health departments with interventions, risk reduction and early detection.

Wallace said her organization partners with public health leaders in Kentucky, which was recently awarded $2 million in BOLD Act funding.

“We are looking at what infrastructure Kentucky is lacking, where these gaps in care exist and then from a practical perspective, how can we begin to address that,” she said.

Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, is part of the effort to reauthorize the legislation.

“I just had a situation where my mother-in-law just passed away with it, and I’ve been working on this even well before," Guthrie said. "I think everybody has somebody in their family that says how draining it can be, and it really works on families to understand the resources that are available."

The legislation is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday, Feb. 14 in a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

Guthrie hopes to have the bill on the House floor sometime this spring, he said.