Modernizing America’s Health Care System Starts With Early Detection

Commentary

Chronic disease is driving costs, crushing families, and overwhelming public programs. And yet Medicare—the backbone of health care for seniors—still operates like it’s 1995: reactive, bureaucratic, and far too often late to the game.

The recent announcement of a new Healthcare Advisory Committee by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is another chapter in the Trump administration’s quest to design a health care system for the challenges Americans actually face today.

As this new committee sets out to modernize American health care, it should start with a simple truth: You don’t win by treating disease after it takes hold; you win by catching it early, or better yet, preventing it altogether.

Right now, Medicare’s coverage framework lags years behind scientific innovation, especially when it comes to early detection. Take Alzheimer’s disease. Until recently, getting a diagnosis often meant expensive brain imaging or invasive procedures that were out of reach for many patients. But science has moved forward. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now cleared blood tests that can help detect Alzheimer’s in patients exhibiting early symptoms with a simple blood draw—no hospital visit required.

That’s a potential game-changer. But here’s the catch: Medicare can cover these tests only when they are used after symptoms appear. It can’t cover them as a screening tool unless they first get a stamp of approval from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force or Congress passes a law. In other words, even when innovation exists, Washington’s outdated red tape keeps it out of reach for people who want to catch diseases early rather than late.

This is exactly the kind of problem policymakers should be solving. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) gets it.

He put it this way: “It all starts with prevention. We can’t have people find out about things after it’s too late.”

His bipartisan ASAP Act would create a pathway for Medicare to cover FDA-cleared blood tests that screen for Alzheimer’s, helping patients detect the disease in its earliest stages.

And the need couldn’t be clearer. More than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s today, and the number is growing fast as the population ages. What’s more, more than 90 percent of Americans say they would take a simple blood test if it were available. People want answers. They want to plan. They want a fighting chance.

Early detection delivers exactly that. It gives patients and families time—time to seek treatment, time to make decisions, and in some cases, time to slow the progression of disease. It also reduces long-term costs for Medicare by avoiding the far more expensive care that comes with advanced illness. A Deloitte study released in 2025 showed that treating chronic diseases earlier, including Alzheimer’s disease, could save $1.5 trillion per year.

This isn’t just about Alzheimer’s. The same principle applies to other neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s. Both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s gradually rob patients of their independence, their mobility, and their quality of life. And in both cases, earlier detection could open the door to interventions that delay progression and improve outcomes.

Patients facing these diagnoses shouldn’t be stuck waiting for symptoms to worsen before the system responds. They deserve access to the best diagnostic tools available—when those tools can still make a difference.

Expanding access to screening isn’t just good medicine—it’s common sense. It’s also fiscally responsible. A system that catches disease earlier is a system that spends less over time and delivers better results for patients.

That’s the kind of modernization Americans are looking for. Not more bureaucracy. Not more delays. Real reform that aligns Medicare coverage with the pace of innovation.

The new advisory committee has an opportunity to lead. It should prioritize removing regulatory barriers that block access to preventive services. And Congress should move forward with bipartisan solutions such as the ASAP Act that give patients more access to early detection tools that can make a difference.

Because a modern health care system doesn’t wait for disease to take hold. It gets ahead of it.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.