My caringforourparents blog last week on the desperate need for transportation services for seniors generated lots of comments on elder care message boards. Most shared their frustration with the lack of public transit, but others tipped me off to some great ideas for community-based transportation services. The timing is important, given today’s headline that House Republicans are planning on cutting [...]
When I talk to community groups about long-term care, I almost always get a question about dad's car keys: An adult child fears for the safety of dad (and other drivers who share the road with him). Dad is terrified that he'll lose a huge piece of his independence when he can no longer drive to the supermarket or visit friends. And, in truth, dad isn't wrong. In too [...]
There may be no more controversial issue for both Baby Boomers and their parents than Social Security. After AARP officials said last week the organization would be open to discussing changes in the system, I wrote the following for my TaxVox blog: Social Security has two obvious problems. While the system is not “broke,” as some insist, it will have only enough [...]
We all know the sad story: Despite extensive rehab, a patient in a skilled nursing facility is failing. Instead of improving, she is finds herself returning to the local hospital with trouble breathing, heart failure, or unmanaged pain. Eventually, she may die in the hospital hooked up to a ventilator and feeding tube that she never wanted. A team at [...]
We Americans often fall into the trap of looking at our problems in isolation. But every nation in the world faces its own challenges when it comes to caring for the elderly and younger people with disabilities. An imporant new report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) provides an important international context for caregiving and caregivers in the developed [...]
More than 8,000 general practitioners in the United Kingdom will soon begin displaying in their offices seven "end-of-life" promises to their patients. It is a great idea. According to an article in The Independent, every GP (much like primary care physicians in the U.S.) will post this end-of-life pledge on the wall of their waiting room. The Charter for End of [...]
Last evening, I had the opportunity to speak to WISER (Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement), a Washington, D.C.- based group dedicated to improving the financial security of women. My topic: caregiving, and the effects it has on Baby Boomer women. I told the group about a couple of women I met when I wrote my book, Caring for Our [...]
Kaiser Health News published my column today on what Medicaid cuts would mean for seniors and others with disabilities. While most of the public and many policymakers never think about the importance of the Medicaid safety net for these people, the program is the nation's largest single payer of of long-term care supports and services. If future Medicaid benefits are reduced and most middle-class [...]
Next week, I'll be speaking to faculty and others at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine on the importance of fully integrating long-term care services and supports with medical care. On May 23, I'll be delivering the same message to a large non-profit health system that includes more than two dozen hospitals. Physicians and health system adminstrators are beginning to get it: [...]
New federal legislation would make it easier for states to deny Medicaid health and long-term care benefits to the frail elderly and younger adults with disabilities. The new rules would also apply to low-income women and kids who rely on Medicaid for their medical care. The proposal, introduced yesterday by Representative Fred Upton (R-MI) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), would repeal an obscure piece of federal [...]