SFS Statement on CMS's Alzheimer's Drug Coverage Plan

June 2, 2023 – The nonpartisan patient advocacy group, Survivors for Solutions, started by John “CZ” Czwartacki, a patient who has managed his MS for 30 years, provided a patient perspective on CMS’s new coverage plan for Alzheimer’s drugs: 

“Alzheimer’s patients and their family members saw a glimmer of hope when safe and effective treatments for the disease became available. To no avail, keeping in line with what appears to be the Administration’s approach to healthcare delivery, CMS now only wants to cover care for a lucky few. Using their own guesses at what is “affordable” to a patient fighting for their life as an excuse to play god. 

“As an MS patient that relies on expensive drugs to live, I find it borderline criminal when the government intervenes and hinders people’s access to life-saving care. If a drug is safe and effective, let the doctors and patients decide who should receive that care. A patient’s quality of life should not be determined by a nameless, faraway bureaucrat, much less a government-controlled registry.

 “Furthermore, by limiting access, the government is signaling to innovators, scientists, and pharmaceutical companies that they shouldn’t bother seeking breakthroughs for Alzheimer’s or any other condition for that matter. Washington and CMS are now adding more uncertainty and making it unnecessarily harder for patients to access healthcare solutions.  

“Patients are facing enough already. Washington,  please stop stealing our hope!”