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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, the national long-term care insurance program included in the 2010 health reform law, is on life-support. It is increasingly likely that the Obama Administration will never develop the actual insurance policies that were supposed to be available to consumers next year. On Wednesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee deleted all of the [...]
At first glance, it looks like Medicaid and other key government programs for the frail elderly and others with disabilities avoided a major hit in the debt limit agreement reached by Congress today. But in truth all of these programs remain in severe jeopardy. The complex deal calls for several stages of deficit reduction. The first is a cut of $25 billion [...]
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 [...]
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: [...]
As if we needed it, this week has provided yet more evidence that the world of both medical and long-term care services for seniors is changing in profound ways. It is complicated and hard to follow, but the bottom line is this: There will be increasingly less government support for the services frail seniors and their families need. And senior services [...]