“Live with joy.”

You probably wouldn’t expect to see those words on a prescription from your health care provider, but this is exactly what my neurologist prescribed to me when I was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2017.

I was 67.

Up to that point in my life, I had made a living specifically through my brain. A career academic and the first female chancellor to serve at the University of Denver, you could even say I was known for my brain. It was the strongest muscle I had.

Facing the diagnosis of a disease that is slowly destroying my memory and cognitive abilities was at first unthinkable — but this diagnosis has ushered in a new way of thinking altogether.

Now, I’m focused on time. Alzheimer’s is a disease that robs us of the time we have to be ourselves while we are still alive. I don’t know how much time I have ahead of me, which is why I am choosing to focus on time filled with light and doing the things I love.

But because I’m focused on time, I am also acutely aware that each day that passes without access to Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved Alzheimer’s treatments reduces the amount of good, quality time I have to spend with my loved ones — time to live with joy.

Yet, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has blocked access to new FDA-approved treatments that, for the first time, address the underlying biology of Alzheimer’s, rather than just the symptoms. Put simply, CMS is wasting our precious time.

Never in the history of the Medicare program has any FDA-approved treatment for any disease been denied coverage. It’s unprecedented and unfathomable. For every day that passes without access to these treatments, CMS steals time from more than 2,000 people living with Alzheimer’s who progress out of eligibility to take the treatments.

As a person living with early Alzheimer’s, access to these treatments could allow me more time to participate in daily life and remain independent. It could mean more time to “Live with Joy.”

There are more than 6 million Americans living with this disease, including more than 75,000 here in Colorado, not to mention their tens of thousands of friends and family serving as caregivers.

Time is of the essence. That’s why I spent some of mine this month with other Alzheimer’s Association advocates from across Colorado and neighboring states to rally outside the Denver CMS regional office. We used our precious time to call on CMS to reverse this unacceptable decision.

Dr. Rebecca Chopp is the former chancellor ofc the University of Denver, and the first female chancellor in the institution’s history. She is an Alzheimer’s advocate and serves on the Board of the Alzheimer’s Association Colorado Chapter.

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