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 [...]
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 [...]
A divided congressional long-term care commission has adopted a package of recommendations aimed at improving the nation’s long-term supports and services. However, while a majority of the panel agreed on some modest delivery and workforce reforms, it could not reach a consensus on all-important financing solutions. In effect, the commission will recommend changes that would effectively retain the current framework of financing [...]
The Congressional Long-Term Care Commission met for the first time on Thursday, just two days after naming an executive director. But members acknowledge they have no choice but to finish in barely 90 days. That’s an absurdly short amount of time for the panel to meet the ambitious goal Congress gave it—to recommend ways to improve the way we deliver [...]
The Congressional Long-Term Care Commission has selected SCAN Foundation president Bruce A. Chernof as its chair and Mark Warshawsky, director of retirement research at the consulting firm Towers Watson, as Vice Chair. The panel will hold its first meeting on June 27. The commission also quietly replaced one of its members, former Louisiana Secretary of Health and Hospitals Bruce Greenstein. His [...]
The Congressional long-term care commission will finally hold its first meeting in late June. However, the panel must conclude its meetings in the fall and commission members are increasingly pessimistic that they will reach agreement on any substantial reforms to the nation’s troubled system of supports and services for the frail elderly or younger people with disabilities. Last Friday, I [...]
The White House finally appointed the last three members of the congressional long-term care commission, making it possible for the panel to get down to work. The nominations, which were supposed to have been made by Feb 1, are Henry Claypool, Executive Vice President of the American Association of People with Disabilities and a top aide at the Department of Health and Human [...]