The new health law creates, for the first time, a national, voluntary long-term care insurance system called the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act. Participation will be optional, but if you enroll, you'll get a basic cash benefit for life to help pay for personal assistance if you are disabled or very frail and unable to care for [...]
Earlier this week, I participated in a panel with Connie Garner, the Senate staffer who was a key architect of the CLASS Act, the national long-term care insurance program that is included in the new health reform law. Garner challenged the audience, which included several private long-term care insurance company execs, to work with her to help turn CLASS into workable [...]
President Obama has signed health reform, including the CLASS Act, into law. Now, his administration needs to turn a law into an insurance product people will buy. It won't be easy. No other country has tried to create a voluntary public long-term care insurance program, which is what CLASS is. The challenge will be to design a policy that provides a respectable benefit at an [...]
The health reform bill passed by Congress last night includes big changes in the way we pay for long-term care, both at home and in nursing facilities. The reforms will give the elderly and disabled far more flexibility in the way they get care and, at the same time, begin turning long-term care from largely a welfare program to an insurance system. The biggest change [...]
A typical couple would have to save nearly $200,000 to pay for their out-of-pocket medical costs from the time they are 65 until they die, according to an important new study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Add in nursing home costs, and they are likely to need $260,000. But that's only part of the story. About 5 percent of 65-year-old couples will [...]
The compromise health reform plan proposed today by President Obama includes many of the key long-term care provisions that were included in the earlier House and Senate bills. The CLASS Act--the national long-term care insurance program--along with federal incentives to encourage states to expand their home and community based care programs under Medicaid, and improved care coordination for those receiving both Medicare and Medicaid [...]
If you think the U.S. is struggling over how to finance long-term care, just take a look at what's happening in the U.K. There, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who faces an uphill battle for reelection this spring, has proposed to expand free long-term care to 280,000 of the most needy. His proposal has not only come under fire from the opposition conservatives, but also from many in [...]
Those of us who have been caring for our parents know very well the physical toll it takes. I helped care for my dad for 18 months. And after he died, one of the first things I did was make an appointment to see my own doctor. I had never felt so exhausted and worn out in my life. Now, an important new study describes the health effects [...]
Republican Scott Brown's stunning victory in the Massachusetts Senate race has obviously turned the health reform debate on its head. Without a 60-vote majority in the Senate, Democrats are no longer assured of passing a major health bill. But what will this mean for long-term care reform? There are three key long-term supports and services issues at stake--expansion of Medicaid home and [...]
Why can't The Washington Post ever get it right when it comes to long-term care. Its latest self-embarrassment came with a piece it ran today comparing elder care in the U.S. with similar assistance in France and the U.K. According to the author, a psychologist named Sara Mansfield Taber, elderly women in England and France receive far better care than the writer's mother [...]