Those online senior living referral services are getting a lot of attention these days. And not in a good way. The chairman of the US Senate Aging Committee has begun an investigation into assisted living referrals by A Place for Mom, one of the biggest commercial advice outfits. At the same time, more states are requiring firms to publicly disclose [...]
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 [...]
In a letter to investors, Larry Fink, who is CEO of the massive investment firm Blackrock, warned that retirement “is a much harder proposition than it was 30 years ago. And it’ll be a much harder proposition 30 years from now.” One reason, he says: “As a society, we focus a tremendous amount of energy on helping people live longer lives. [...]
The US is desperately short of nurses, personal care aides, and other direct care workers who help frail older adults and younger people with disabilities manage their days. Instead of dealing with the problem, policymakers have, predictably, devolved into their usual partisan blame-mongering. Watch, if you can, this recent hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the worker [...]
In his American Jobs Plan, President Biden has proposed increasing federal support for home-based long-term care by a staggering $400 billion over eight years. A $50 billion annual increase would represent a roughly 40 percent increase in the $129 billion Medicaid spent on long-term care in 2018 and a 70 percent increase in that year’s home and community-based services (HCBS) [...]
The coronavirus pandemic is a nightmare for nursing homes, their staffs, residents, and their families. While we know much less about them, the situation is likely similar for Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs) and other residential care for older adults. As of March 30, more than 400 of 15,000 US nursing facilities had an outbreak of coronavirus—among residents, staff or both-- [...]
When we think about older adults in the US, we usually focus on those living in cities or suburbs. By doing so, we forget about the rural elderly, who represent an outsized share of people living in these communities and who have very special challenges. According to a new report by the US Census bureau, about 10.6 million older adults [...]
The huge 2018 budget bill Congress passed last week includes significant new money for dementia research and modest additional funding for many programs aimed at assisting frail older adults. The final $1.3 trillion bill was a dramatic about-face for President Trump and House Republicans, whose own budget plans would have slashed or even eliminated funding for many seniors’ programs. The [...]
Congress took two big steps this week that could have a major impact on seniors and younger people with disabilities. The one that got the most attention, of course, was the Senate’s failure to pass a replacement for the Affordable Care Act. The second, which was barely noticed, was a series of key decisions by House Republicans on how much [...]
Congress and President Trump took dead aim at seniors and younger people with disabilities this week. First, Congress voted to cut or freeze funding for key federal senior service programs. Then the House passed its bill to replace the Affordable Care Act—a measure that would make health insurance unaffordable for many people aged 50-64, allow insurance companies to sell policies [...]