Ask family caregivers what sort of government support they want and their answer is clear: They want upfront cash. Not bigger future Social Security benefits. Not respite care or tax credits, not paid family leave, or even reimbursement for out-of-pocket costs. They want cash. That, at least, were the preferences of participants in four focus groups described in a new [...]
This year, California took the second of two steps to allow residents with unlimited assets to participate in its Medicaid long-term services and supports (LTSS) program. Advocates hoped the move would make the program far more widely available. Conservative critics feared it would become a budget-busting open door for the wealthy to take advantage of a public program. Both were [...]
Donald Trump’s return to the White House, coupled with Republican control of the Senate and possibly of the House could result in a far more limited government role in the care of older adults and younger people with disabilities. Most immediately, Trump’s proposed mass deportations will make the current shortage of care workers much worse, increasing the burden on family [...]
Voters in Washington State have decided to keep the state’s first-in-the-nation public long term care insurance program. On Tuesday, they easily rejected a ballot initiative that would have killed the far-reaching law. The WA Cares law provides up to $36,500 in long-term care insurance benefits, with the amount increasing with inflation. It is funded with a payroll tax surcharge of [...]
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has backed an earth-shattering idea: For the first time, traditional Medicare would pay for personal assistance at home and related long-term care. Currently, only Medicaid and certain Medicare managed care programs provide long-term care benefits. Harris endorsed the idea in an appearance on the television show The View and her staff heavily promoted her initiative [...]
For all the false talk about the burdens immigrants put on the US health care system, it is important to remember the other side of the story: Without foreign-born health workers, the US systems for medical and long-term care could, quite literally, collapse. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump vows “the largest deportation operation in history” to say nothing of closing [...]
The Republican party platform, orchestrated by former President Trump, is filled with promises for those it calls “our Great Seniors.” But there is little or no real policy behind most of those campaign pledges. And the document is filled with many irreconcilable contradictions. The platform will be the GOP’s election-year policy framework coming out of its upcoming July 15-18 nominating [...]
We all know the population of older adults is growing rapidly. But we are aging in very different ways. And if we are going to reimagine medicine, caregiving, and government policy, it is important to better understand who older adults are and how they live. In its newest Profile of Older Americans, the federal Administration for Community Living paints a [...]
Do nursing home owners understate the profits they report to federal regulators by shifting income to related businesses? Two academic experts in nursing home finance found that in one state 63 percent of margins are hidden this way. To put it another way, only 37 percent of true nursing home profits are reported to federal regulators. A new paper by [...]
President Biden’s 2025 budget proposal, which will double as his presidential campaign platform, includes major proposals aimed at supporting older adults. It would raise taxes to help fund Medicare, increase federal support for Medicaid home-based care,, create a federal family leave program for those caring for older adults as well as children, and toughen regulation and inspections of nursing homes. [...]