Why are caregivers for the elderly such bad advocates? There are 40-60 million Americans caring for loved ones yet their needs are widely ignored by the political system. Thus, politicians rarely rouse themselves to do much to help, and when budget-cutting time comes, what little assistance there is often ends up on the block. The inability of caregivers to organize politically was a major topic of [...]
Yesterday, I participated in an AARP program with several authors of books on caregiving. One fellow panelist, the novelist Walter Mosley, was wonderfully provocative as he reflected on what he calls “the great equalizing effect of great age.” Mosley, whose mother was Jewish and whose father was black, put it this way: “White people become black people when they can [...]
On Thursday, I'll be participating in an ambitous program sponsored by AARP where 10 authors will discuss their experiences and views about the challenges of family caregiving. Most of us have had the personal experience of caring for family members and know about the subject first-hand. Some of our books, such as my own Caring for Our Parents, use the personal stories of caregivers to describe the nation's [...]
This week’s failure of the deficit super committee may have saved Medicare and Medicaid from spending reductions for now, but don’t kid yourself: These programs remain squarely in the fiscal bulls-eye. As part of last August’s deal to extend the federal debt limit, Congress agreed that if the super committee was unable to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over [...]
In the wake of the White House decision to abandon the CLASS Act, policy analysts are struggling to find some workable solution to the growing problem of how to finance long-term care costs. So how about using Social Security? One versionof this idea was proposed years ago by Yung-Ping Chen, now professor emeritus of gerontology at the University of Massachusetts. He'd let Social Security recipients trade off a small portion [...]
Yesterday, I joined three of the most creative thinkers in the long-term care policy world to discuss the future of personal care services for the elderly and disabled in an era of shrinking government resources. My fellow panelists at the event, sponsored by The Urban Institute, were Robyn Stone, author of Long-Term Care for the Elderly and senior vice president for research at Leading Age, [...]
On Tuesday, Nov 8, I'll be moderating an important discussion on the future long-term care in an era of shrinking government. My fellow panelists will be Robyn Stone, author of Long-Term Care for the Elderly and senior vice president for research for LeadingAge, a trade group that represents non-profit providers ; Len Fishman, the CEO of Hebrew Senior Life, an innovative senior services provider in Boston, [...]
The Metlife Mature Market Institute has released its annual survey of the cost of long-term care services, including nursing homes, assisted living facilities, adult day programs, and home care. And the news is not good. On average, provider costs rose far faster than the rate of inflation. The only exceptions were home care services, where costs were unchanged from 2010 [...]
It may be possible to design a modest government-run voluntary long-term care insurance program that is financially viable. It isn't easy, would probably enroll only about 2 million people, and would take some substantial revisions to the program as imagined by the Community Living Assistance Services & Supports (CLASS)Act. But it might be possible. That at least is the message buried in the reams of documents released [...]
After spending 19 months trying to figure out how to make the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act work, the Obama Administration has abandoned the landmark national long-term care insurance program that was included in the 2010 health reform law. But it was easier for the Administration and vocal GOP critics of the program to kill CLASS than [...]