House Ways & Means Committee Chair Richard Neal (D-MA) is mulling a plan to add a limited long-term care benefit to Medicare Supplement (Medigap) insurance. Minnesota proposed a similar plan last year. And the idea would expand to traditional Medicare a recent innovation that added limited supports and services to Medicare Advantage managed care plans. Neal is the second key [...]
The Trump Administration is (very quietly) looking at ways to reinvigorate the flagging private long-term care (LTC) insurance market. The recommendations are expected to surface later this year. And they likely will be very modest. The ideas being considered would make some regulatory changes and create new tax subsidies to encourage consumers to purchase private LTC insurance. They would send [...]
After the new Congress is sworn in next January it may address several issues that directly affect the well-being of older adults as well as younger people with disabilities. The House, which will be controlled by Democrats, and the Senate, still run by Republicans, will have very different perspectives on these issues but both chambers are likely to confront the [...]
How much would it cost if government pays for all long-term care? About $4 trillion over the next decade. We know because Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has proposed to do just that, as part of his ambitious Medicare-for-all health insurance program. And, in an effort to calculate the overall cost of Sanders’s domestic policy agenda, a group of my [...]
Four former top government officials—two Democrats and two Republicans—have proposed a new plan aimed at improving the nation’s system for financing long-term care. Their package of ideas is detailed but relatively modest. However, by agreeing to a consensus plan, the officials have taken a major step in raising the profile of the critical issue of long-term care financing. The group [...]
Earlier this month, with absolutely no fanfare, the Treasury Department announced what could be a major change in the way we save for retirement. It will now permit people to shift a portion of their 401(k)s or IRAs into a deferred annuity that provides a guaranteed stream of income once you reach old age. The idea has the potential to [...]
For the first time in years, there is hope that the U.S. can create a new model to help families finance long-term supports and services. The solution isn’t yet visible, and lawmakers won’t address the issue any time soon. But a wide range of private interests including long-term care providers, consumer groups, the insurance industry, and policy analysts seems to [...]
A Pennsylvania state appeals court has ruled that the adult son of a nursing home resident is responsible for her unpaid $93,000 bill. And the decision has some elder care lawyers wondering if this is just the beginning of a trend. Pennsylvania is one of 30 states that have filial responsibility statutes—laws that impose a duty on adult children to [...]