Last week, President Biden agreed to drop his proposed $400 billion increase in the federal share of Medicaid’s home-based long-term care services. He made the concession to reach a deal with a bipartisan group of 21 senators on a much broader physical infrastructure bill. But the flaws in the current system of supports and services for older adults and young [...]
A first-in-the-nation state long-term care insurance program is likely to become law within a few weeks. In Washington State, both houses of the legislature have approved the measure, though they must resolve relatively minor differences between the two bills. Gov. Jay Inslee has promised to sign it. Washington would be the first state in the US to enact a public [...]
For three years, I’ve been working with a diverse group of policy experts to create a consensus framework for financing long-term supports and services (LTSS). This morning, the Long-Term Care Financing Collaborative, released its recommendations. And they are built around two major reforms: a new universal catastrophic long-term care insurance program and major improvements to Medicaid’s LTSS benefit. Our insurance [...]
Medicare is the 1965 Ford Mustang of healthcare. It was cutting-edge back in the day. But, like that half-century old car, Medicare no longer runs very well and needs a remake. The real issue is not its finances, which is what most of Medicare’s 50th anniversary commentary is about. It’s about redesigning how it delivers care, which is what really [...]
Today, America’s vision of long-term care is limited and grim. Supports and services for frail elders or younger people with disabilities are delivered in a fragmented, disorganized way that puts recipients of care at risk for serious harm or even death and likely wastes billions of dollars. Indeed, if the goal of supports and services is to provide the best [...]
The number of people needing long-term supports and services is likely to double by mid-century, and there is broad agreement across the political spectrum that our system for delivering and financing that care is, frankly, terrible. But for years, these problems seemed intractable. How could we break the political gridlock that has infected this issue, along with so many others? [...]