It costs families more to care for a frail older adult than to raise a child for the first 17 years of her life. Yet, while the government routinely provides a broad range of assistance and free services for children, it offers only limited benefits for those needing long-term supports and services—and mostly only for those who are impoverished and [...]
Older adults with chronic illness often need a combination of medical treatment and social and spiritual supports. Together, they can make people healthier and happier, and less likely to suffer acute episodes that result in preventable hospitalizations. The medical treatment comes from doctors, hospitals, and health systems while the spiritual support comes from faith communities. And, in many cases, so [...]
Genworth Financial, the largest seller of long-term care (LTC) insurance policies, has agreed to be acquired by a privately-held Chinese investment firm. At the same time, it announced it will reserve an additional $400 million to $450 million against future long-term care claims. The twin Oct 23 announcements are further indication of just how brutal the long-term care insurance business [...]
My friend Dan Timmel died last week. You probably didn’t know him. But if you are a frail older adult or a younger person with disabilities who is a Medicaid recipient, a family member of someone on Medicaid, or a taxpayer, you owe Dan a great debt. Dan was a senior career official on the Medicaid side of the Centers [...]
A typical 65-year-old couple will need to save nearly $400,000 to pay for out-of-pocket medical care and long-term care in old age, according to new estimates by the Fidelity Benefits Consulting. That is $60,000 more than a typical couple’s entire savings at retirement, including equity in their home. Fidelity estimated an older couple will need to put away an average [...]
Imagine your mom has a stroke. Once she is stabilized, she is sent to a skilled nursing facility for rehab. Then she goes home and gets some home health care and additional physical therapy. Medicare may pay, but for how long? For many years, that was decided by the “improvement standard.” In other words, as long as this care helped [...]
About 7.2 million Americans currently own traditional long-term care insurance policies, a number that’s held steady for the last seven years. But who are they? And what does it say about the future of long-term care insurance? Overall, the share of older adults who own long-term care insurance (LTCi) has barely changed since 2002, according to new research by my [...]
Last week, the federal government announced that premiums for nearly all of its existing long-term care insurance policies will increase—by an average of 83 percent. In other words, they will almost double for federal employees and retirees. What does such a price hike on current policies mean for consumers, and for the future of long-term care insurance? First, a bit [...]
Since July 1 was the 50th anniversary of Medicare first enrolling (and paying benefits for) seniors, it’s a good time to think about modernizing the half-century old program. A couple of weeks ago I tried to make the case for why we should improve Medicare. Now, let’s think about how. Medicare needs to better serve a population of older adults [...]
Last year, Congress changed the way Medicare pays physicians, It scrapped a system that paid docs based largely on the number of procedures and tests they do, and instructed federal Medicare officials to come up with a design that rewards quality and value. Medicare has already moved in this direction for hospitals and health systems, and the new law was [...]