After an intense internal review, the nation’s dominant long-term care insurance company has decided to continue selling policies. However, Genworth Financial Inc. is making major changes in the way it plans to manage its future business including asking regulators for smaller but more frequent premium increases on new policies. Genworth CEO Thomas J. McInerney told institutional investors this morning that [...]
Despite the fears of consumer advocates and the predictions of many insurance companies, seniors are flocking to Medicare Advantage managed care plans. It shouldn’t be a surprise since premiums for these policies are a fraction of the cost of traditional fee-for-service Medicare. This shift may be one driver of the recent slowdown in the growth of health care costs and [...]
More than one out of every five nursing home residents is still being given powerful antipsychotic drugs despite a growing consensus that they are inappropriate and often dangerous. These drugs frequently are given to “calm” dementia patients even though many are approved only for the treatment of diseases such as schizophrenia. Despite a federal initiative, a $2.2 billion legal settlement [...]
On Monday, I participated in a PBS NewsHour panel on how to improve services and supports for an aging America. PBS brought together a diverse group of long-term care experts to discuss some interesting international models for delivering supports and services to the frail elderly in a way that allows them to preserve their dignity and independence. The models ranged from [...]
On Monday, Nov. 4, I’ll be on a panel with a group of some highly respected long-term care policy experts to discuss some international creative models for delivering supports and services. The program, which will be held in Washington, is sponsored by the PBS Newshour and funded by the SCAN Foundation. We’ll be discussing a broad range of ideas—from the [...]
Why is there no catastrophic long-term care insurance? It could benefit millions of middle-income people who are able to pay for a few years of services and supports on their own but need to protect themselves against the risk of a very long period of need that would impoverish all but a handful of us. Even though catastrophic coverage is a [...]
Americans have little idea how long-term supports and services are paid for, according to a new poll by Harris Interactive and the medical publishers HealthDay. Yet, they are worried about the cost, believe most people should buy long-term care insurance, and also favor a new government program to pay some or all of the costs of LTC. It is hard to [...]
Where in the world would you want to age? According to a comprehensive new study by the group HelpAge International, you want to live your golden years in…Sweden. True, it’s cold. Really cold. But based on more than a dozen key indicators, including income security, health status, employment and education, and ability to live independently, Northern European countries such as [...]
How will Washington’s ongoing budget crisis affect seniors? Not much, at first. But it could become very costly in just a few weeks. One big unresolved question: Will Social Security benefits be paid if the government breaches the debt limit? Many seniors programs will continue to operate for at least a while. For now, Social Security checks are going out [...]
If, like millions of Americans, you need personal assistance and run out of money, you may be eligible for long-term care under Medicaid. But in order to get those safety net benefits, you may have no choice but to move into a nursing home. This is true even though most people prefer to stay at home and most of the [...]