The fate of many important health reforms aimed directly at seniors is in the hands of the Supreme Court. While the public has focused most of its attention on whether the High Court will strike down the individual mandate in the 2010 health reform law, the justices today are hearing arguments about another critical issue: What should happen to the rest of the Affordable Care [...]
The fiscal plan proposed this week by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) would profoundly change the way seniors and younger adults with disabilities receive health care and personal assistance. For many programs, it would reduce funding from today’s levels even though the population of those over 65 will double by mid-century. In many ways, it would end the [...]
I spent this morning at an interesting Capitol Hill conference on an important—but often ignored —topic: What role should home health aides play in the delivery of care to people with chronic disease? Health care providers and policy experts are spending lots of time thinking about ways to better integrate medical and personal care. They are finally recognizing that people [...]
My best guess is that Congress will formally repeal the CLASS Act in 2012. Already abandoned by the Obama Administration, CLASS has no champion on Capitol Hill and is likely to fall victim to implacable Republican opposition and a lack of Democratic support. Thanks to technical budget rules, Congress can now kill the national, voluntary long-term care insurance program without [...]
Eighty-give percent of physicians say that unmet social needs lead to worse health outcomes, according to a new survey sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. But only 20 percent are confident in their ability to help patients and their families meet those needs. Talk about good news and bad news! The survey asked about a wide range of social [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Skilled nursing facilities whose patients are too frequently admitted to the hospital would face stiff new penalties according to the deficit reduction plan proposed by President Obama on Sept. 20. These admissions are often caused by falls, infections, or poor medication management. Overall, as part of a broad deficit reduction plan, Obama would cut more than $300 billion from projected [...]
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 [...]
Republican critics of the CLASS Act--the national long-term care insurance program that was included in the 2010 health law-- have concocted a phony scandal about how the law passed. As I have written often, CLASS is deeply flawed (though well-intended). But there is a big difference between a poorly executed idea and a scandal. In a report that is as partisan as it is [...]