Must reads and watch

• A December 30, 2013 Associated Press (via The Washington Post) article reported that some Alzheimer's sufferers are seeking care outside the US due to rising healthcare costs. According to the article, "Relatives in Western nations are increasingly confronting Kuratli’s dilemma as the number of Alzheimer’s patients and costs rise, and the supply of qualified nurses and facilities struggles to keep up. Faraway countries are offering cheaper, and to some minds better, care for those suffering from the irreversible loss of memory.The nascent trend is unnerving to some experts who say uprooting people with Alzheimer’s will add to their sense of displacement and anxiety, though others say quality of care is more important than location. There’s also some general uneasiness over the idea of sending ailing elderly people abroad: The German press has branded it “gerontological colonialism.”"
• A December 29, 2013 Fox News broadcast segment focused on the rising rate of Alzheimer's and the predicted tripling of cases by 2050. 
• A December 28, 2013 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel opinion piece by Tom Hlavacek called on the US to "commit to a bipartisan war on Alzheimer's on par with the worldwide war on HIV." According to the author, "We need a Manhattan Project on Alzheimer's. Imagine if what we did worldwide for AIDS was done in the U.S. for Alzheimer's. Ryan and Murray just brokered a budget deal to get us back on track to take on such ideas. An important first step, while passing a real budget instead of kicking various cans down various roads, would be to support the president's budget proposal to add $100 million to federal Alzheimer's funding this year. And then next year, commit to a bipartisan war on Alzheimer's on par with the worldwide war on HIV. My mom taught me the power of citizens taking on a cause. The U.S. has shown time and again that when we commit ourselves as a nation to something, we can do great things. Let's do this great thing: Let's be the generation to beat Alzheimer's." Tom Hlavacek is executive director of the Alzheimer's Association of Southeastern Wisconsin.