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Over the next two weeks, the Democratic and Republican parties will be forming their platforms. It’s essential that long-term care financing reform is included in their platforms. That’s why we need your help.
AAHSA recently developed platform statements to share with both parties on the Long-Term Care Solution. Please share you own versions of the following platform statements by July 25.
Whatever your political affiliation, please consider submitting information to both parties.
Democratic Party
- Visit My Barack Obama.
- Enter your zip code under “Find a Listening to America Event Near You” (It’s best to check this site as soon as possible. Many of these events are happening within the next few days).
- Select an event to attend and share your own version of the following platform statement:
AAHSA’s Platform:
Any initiative to reform health care must also include long-term care financing reform to address the need of seniors and persons with disabilities for supportive services. The responsibility of care giving will only increase as the baby boom generation ages and the number of people who need services multiply. A fiscally sound, long-term care financing strategy, based on a national insurance model like the CLASS Act, must be developed to provide cash benefits that maximize choice, dignity and independence for seniors and those with disabilities, regardless of income. The plan should support those who need services and those who provide them, without a bias toward institutional care.
Republican Party
- Visit GOP Platform 2008.
- Click “create platform account.”
- Create an account.
- Click on “submit text entry” and enter your own version of the following platform statement:
AAHSA’s Platform:
Any effort at health care reform must also include long-term care financing reform. The responsibility of care giving will only increase as the baby boom generation ages and needs additional services. America needs a fiscally responsible approach for long-term care financing based on the principles developed in the successful state-based Cash & Counseling programs. These principles, including a cash benefit, offer the maximum choice, independence, and personal responsibility for seniors and persons with disabilities, while ensuring fiscal integrity.
For our Long-term Care Solution, that is.
We want to show policy makers and the public that providers are helping individuals receive the care they need in their homes for $75 a day, which we believe a national insurance trust could offer individuals when they need LTC. The services can be accessed through Medicare, Medicaid (including state waiver programs) or other home and community-based service programs.
We’ve already heard from Chateau Cushnoc in Augusta, Maine who’s helping two residents of their senior housing facility receive personal care services, therapy and other support for just $34 a day.
Do you know someone in a similar situation? Let us know so we can share how you are making it affordable to care.
photo by Craig Collins-Young
On Friday, AAHSA CEO Larry Minnix was among several legislators, researchers and policy experts invited to speak at a Capitol Hill briefing on long-term care reform sponsored by the Brookings Institution.
Minnix participated in a panel on long-term care financing that was moderated by Peter Orszag, the director of the Congressional Budget Office. During his remarks, Minnix discussed AAHSA’s Long-term Care Solution as a viable way to make it affordable to care in our country. A webcast of the event will be available soon.
photo by Craig Collins-Young
On Tuesday, July 15, H.R. 6126, the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2008, is expected to be marked up.
We at AAHSA oppose this bill, as well as its Senate companion, S. 2838, because the measure would prohibit arbitration clauses in long-term care admissions agreements. Supporters argue that nursing home/assisted living residents and their families should not be asked to waive their right to go to court before a dispute arises. In essence, the bill’s sponsors take the position that this type of waiver can never be done fairly (knowingly and voluntarily). The sponsors are responding to examples of over-reaching by providers that in fact were thrown out by courts (e.g., provisions limiting damages when the state does not have a damages limit, provisions prohibiting the arbitrator from awarding punitive damages when state law allows it, and so forth). The sponsors also appear to be claiming that arbitration agreements have a negative impact on quality.
However, there is no relationship between the forum where a dispute is resolved (arbitration or court) and the requirement to provide quality care. Moreover, a blanket prohibition against arbitration clauses is unnecessary. Courts are already doing their job of policing these agreements to ensure that they are fairly entered into and the provisions are not unconscionable.
There is in the field a rough consensus of best practices which takes a balanced and responsible approach, mirroring case law — for example, not mandating signing an arbitration agreement as a condition of admission but allowing the agreement to be rejected and providing for a period of time to rescind the agreement after it is signed; not changing state law on medical malpractice/negligence; etc.
Click here to watch the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law’s hearing on H.R. 6126.
Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
So, when we embarked on the mission to create a sustainable funding model for aging services through public insurance instead of government imposed welfare, we soberly asked ourselves, “What can AAHSA — with our 5,800 members and $3 million dollars in funding — do to change the world of long-term care?”
A year into this transformational agenda we now call the “Long-Term Care Solution” made possible by members like you — we offer this report of our efforts:
Presidential Campaign Awareness
Both Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) now recognize that long-term care must be included in health reform, as evidenced by position statements on their Web sites. This is a major achievement, as the previous prevailing wisdom (or lack thereof) was that the country needs to “fix” health care first. We constantly hammer the proposition that “health care” and “long-term care” are inextricably intertwined.
We met with Sen. McCain’s top domestic health advisor, who has actually written articles about long-term care financing. We have his attention, but he warns we cannot create an “entitlement.” We agree.
We have been promised a meeting with Sen. Obama’s top person as well. Sen. Obama has endorsed Sen. Edward Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) CLASS Act, which began as a disability benefit and now more closely aligns the principles espoused in the Long-Term Care Solution to embrace both elderly and younger disabled populations. Sen. Kennedy has touted our Moran Report study as evidence of the feasibility of creating a sustainable financing model.
Therefore, we have achieved, at least with verbal commitments, our initial goal of including long-term care in health reform. Our next goal is to get a statement in both party platforms to this effect.
Congressional Interest
The CLASS Act is a potential vehicle for the addressing financing of long-term care. Sen. Kennedy chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. We continue to work with the senator’s staff while he recovers from his illness. Sen. Kennedy is one of the few heirs to the Great Society vision, and he is a stalwart in his commitment to this country successfully addressing the problems you and I see everyday.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) chairs the Senate Finance Committee. The credibility that our Montana members have with Baucus is commendable. We met with Sen. Baucus and he wants to conduct a forum on this issue in Montana. He has also asked his staff to work with us and Sen. Kennedy’s staff to refine our framework around the CLASS Act principles. This is great news. Sen. Baucus believes long-term care must be included in overall health reform, and he was complimentary of the quality and seriousness of our work. Meetings with other senators are being planned, but the combined interests of Sens. Baucus and Kennedy are powerful because health reform inevitably flows through their key committees.
On the House of Representatives side, we are working through several of our members to schedule meetings with key leadership. We have already met with Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. F. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) with subsequent meetings planned. These are in addition to the over 100 meetings that AAHSA members have had with their members of Congress.
State and National Forums and Speaking Engagements
A major public and political awareness strategy provided for in the money you gave us is the hosting of forums in strategically selected states. The goal is to generate pressure to reform long-term care financing through local consumer understanding and political action. Two forums have been held in Michigan and Minnesota, with forums scheduled in California and New York. Additional forums are being planned in other states. The plan is to conduct between eight and 12 forums in the next year.
The most recent Minnesota forum at the Humphrey Institute was a home run. More than 200 participants listened to three panels of thought leaders, which included AAHSA members Dan Lindh and Kathryn Roberts, Minnesota State Executive Gayle Kvenvold, and AARP. Three state commissioners and elected representatives from both parties participated and there was excellent press coverage. The event did what it was supposed to do: gin up interest to be cultivated. The Minnesota “formula” for a forum holds much promise.
On Friday, July 11, we will participate in a forum on Capitol Hill entitled, “Reforming Long Term Care: Improving Quality and Ensuring Sustainability.” The forum is sponsored by the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution and will be co-chaired by former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who chaired the National Commission on Quality Long-Term Care. The Engelberg Center, which is under the leadership of Dr. Mark McClellan, expects to draw 175 congressional staff members, media and other leaders.
We have now trained more than 80 ambassadors who have made dozens of presentations on our behalf. Jo-Ann Constantino, CEO of The Eddy in Albany, N.Y., was on the panel at the New York Association’s Spring Institute to discuss the initiative. Constantino has also given the presentation to her organization’s board and members of the Health Care Association of New York State. David Bannerman, CEO of The Ohio Masonic Home, has traveled across his state speaking to Masonic lodges.
In addition, Bannerman gave a presentation about the Long-Term Care Solution to Ohio state Senator Steve Austria (R-Beavercreek), who is also candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Jerry Kuyoth from National Church Residences in Columbus, Ohio, has given presentations on the initiative to the Chillicothe Rotary Club as well as the Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs in Waverly, Ohio. Several ambassadors have placed letters to the editor in their local newspapers.
Ambassador training events have taken place in Washington, D.C., Denver, and Atlanta. We have future trainings coming in Seattle, Sacramento and San Diego. More to come!
Focus Groups and Polling
A big question going into this project is whether or not the public is aware of long-term care financing problems and/or whether they would pay for a solution. Political leaders have wondered why there is no public out cry for change. So, we retained two experienced polling groups to discover answers.
The Mellman Group, a noted Democratic firm, and American Viewpoint, their Republican partner on this project, just concluded their focus group work, which centered on Baltimore, Detroit, and Philadelphia, and included caregivers, non-caregivers and two special groups of 20-30 year olds.
Selected findings thus far:
So, there is significant public awareness because of personal experience, and there is emerging support for change.
Polling comes next. In September, Mark Mellman and Gary Ferguson, our lead pollsters, will be discussing the project and its findings on a conference with all those interested. Stay tuned!
Fund Raising
A total of $2.7 million has been committed by our members toward this 3-4 year campaign. Several member decisions are forthcoming to reach our $3 million goal. The money is being spent boldly yet wisely to get the issue of financing long-term care on the front burner of national reform.
Perspective and What’s Next
Our efforts are creating a buzz and our plan is being referenced in public media and professional publications. A recent example is an article by former Business Week writer Howard Gleckman, who is now with the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Gleckman cites Dr. Barbara Manard’s work and mentions our frameworks throughout his article. Our work is being taken seriously, and the initial hurdle of whether or not long-term care is part of health reform debate has been overcome in many circles.
The next steps are party platform inclusion, search for a legislative vehicle (such as the CLASS Act), continued cultivation of stakeholder interest/support, and the stoking of public and political awareness.
So, why is AAHSA doing this? Well, Ronald Reagan’s quote, paraphrasing the great Rabbi Hillel, comes to mind: “If not us, who? If not now, when?”
David Ferguson, CEO of American Baptist Homes of the West (ABHOW), recently told a small gathering of our colleagues, “I support this effort because I want my association to be thought leaders on major problems and issues that we face in our work.”
If small groups of people change the world, I wonder what we can accomplish with 5,800 members and $3 million. It is us who must transform how long-term care is financed, because if not us, then who?
As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. And in the case of Jane Gross from The New York Times’ “New Old Age” blog, there are many things Gross would’ve done differently when it came to caring for aging mother.
Her latest post features a personal analysis of these decisions while providing readers with information about how to avoid similar situations in their own caregiving responsibilities.
Among other topics, Gross advises readers to find a geriatrician for their elderly loved ones and investigating home care options rather than just traditional nursing homes or assisted living residences.
Two of her tips were particularly interesting to the folks at AAHSA. The first: stick to the not-for-profit sector. In her blog, Gross writes: ”If I had it to do all over again, I would plan for the worst and seek out a not-for-profit nursing home that met my standards.” Obviously, that’s music to our ears.
The other is Gross’ wish that she had understood the limits of her mother’s long-term care insurance policy. Here’s what she had to say:
“The policy cost us about $7,000 a year because of my mother’s advanced age when we purchased it. It would have paid for retrofitting her own home, or even mine. It would have paid for 24/7 home health attendants. But it was virtually useless in an assisted-living apartment, and once my mother was in a nursing home, the policy benefit wasn’t ours to spend.
As long as my mother still had assets and could pay for her $14,000 a month room, the insurance benefit went to the nursing home and reduced her bill accordingly. When she ran out of money, in fairly short order, she was eligible for Medicaid, not because she was old but because she was impoverished. Then the insurance benefit went to the federal government.”
Gross isn’t alone. Across the country, thousands of individuals find that even with LTC insurance, their loved ones end up in unfavorable situations where it is simply unaffordable to care for them. That’s why we are advocating for a national insurance trust that provides cash benefits that individuals who need long-term care can use to pay for the services they need in a place they call home.
Now that you’ve heard from Jane, we want to know you caregiving “woulda, coulda, shouldas.” How would you help a new caregiving make the most of their options while avoiding the pitfalls many caregivers face?
Since my last post, there have been even more AAHSA members getting letters to the editor published about AAHSA’s Long-term Care Solution as a way to alleviate the high costs of providing long-term care. Check these out:
- Today, the Boston Globe published this letter from Elissa Sherman, executive director of MassAging, about an article regarding rising caregiving costs.
- Jim Leich with the Indiana Association of Homes and Services for the Aging had this letter published in the July 6 edition of the South Bend Tribune.
Have you seen a similar story in your paper? Let us know and we can help you draft a letter of your own.
Today, an Associated Press story featured a recent report from Fidelity Investment on long-term care (LTC) insurance. Their most shocking finding? That the average 65-year-old couple have to pay up $85,000 in premiums for their long-term care insurance costs. Once more, that 85 grand is in addition to the $225,000 Fidelity estimates individuals will need for medical costs during retirement.
That just leaves one question: What about the millions of people don’t have $85,000 but still need long-term care?
According to a Georgetown University study, just 24 percent of people between 60 and 79 can afford the LTC insurance policy they need. And even if everyone purchased the best private coverage he or she could afford, Medicaid costs will increase fivefold by 2045. That’s simply unsustainable.
But it’s not just about older people. The article also focused on the financial impact long-term care has on individuals who care for their aging loved ones. Fidelity estimates that a 50-year-old earning $50,000 per year who provides four years of long-term care to a family member could lose more than $140,000 in wages, retirement savings and Social Security over their lifetime because of the costs associated with caregiving.
Long story short, having LTC insurance doesn’t mean it’s any more affordable to care in our country. That’s why AAHSA is proposing a plan that would create a national insurance trust whose premiums provide cash benefits to pay for long-term care expenses. When we are well, we would pay premiums like we do for car or health insurance. When we needed help, we could receive cash benefits to hire an aide, pay a family member who misses work to help us or order groceries to be delivered. Based on sound financial principles, this plan would give us more choice and control over our lives.
And that kind of security is priceless.
Over the past few months, you couldn’t help but see stories in the press about the concerns associated with long-term care costs in our country. Many AAHSA members submitted letters to the editor as a way not only to respond to these stories, but also promote our Long-term Care Solution as a way to allievate these concerns. Several of these letters were published in papers across the country. Here are this month’s highlights:
- On June 2, The Buffalo News published this letter from Lutheran Social Services’ CEO Tom Holt about the plan.
- Sandee Levin with the Virginia Association of Nonprofit Homes for the Aging had a letter published in the Frederickburg Free-Lance Star.
- On June 10, the Dallas Morning News published a letter from Texas Association of Homes and Services for the Aging’s President George Linial about how our plan could make caring for individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease more affordable.
- Carrie Ermshar from the Tennessee Association of Homes and Services for the Aging had a letter published in the online version of The Tennessean.
Have you seen a similar story in your paper? Let us know and we can help you draft a letter of your own.
If you’re thinking about making a visit to the “Bank of Grandma and Grandpa” for help with college tuition or summer camp costs. Think again.
A new study by AARP and the Consumer Bankruptcy Project found the rate of personal bankruptcy filings among people over 65 has jumped by 150% since 1991. Among people 75 to 84, that rate reached 433%.
What’s the cause? Experts believe it comes down to the rising health care costs many seniors face. Medication co-pays and emergency procedures add up.
Take Salynn McCollum, a 68 year old who was featured in a recent Tennessean article on seniors’ rising health care costs. McCollum, a former head start teacher makes $2,500 a month from Social Security and a part-time job. She’s run up $6,000 in credit card debt paying for the medications she needs to manage her Parkinson’s Disease. She also spends an additional $500 a month for Medicare premiums and drug co-pays. It’s no wonder she has “no idea” how she’ll pay these bills.
According to AARP’s Susan Reinahrd, what makes the situation worse is that many seniors have “ so little time to start over and build up savings, and they have few or no job opportunities,” says Susan Reinhard, “The connection between health and economic security is a big issue for older Americans.”
AAHSA’s Long-term Care Solution is gaining ground, state by state. The first state on the “LTCS” tour is Minnnesota. On Wednesday, AAHSA partnered with our Minnesota state association, AARP and several of our members, including Ecumen, hosted a forum about the topic. I found a great summary on Ecumen’s Changing Aging blog about it to share. Hopefully, our forum in California next week will be as successful.
Financing Long Term Care in America: There’s Common Ground in Aging
Just when you think there aren’t issues that Red and Blue America can agree on, there comes this little thing called aging that we’re all doing and want to do well.
On Wednesday a packed auditorium at the University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs participated in a discussion about financing long-term care in America. And what one saw was a great issue opportunity for Red and Blue America to forge common ground. As several panelists, including a Republican state legislator, said: Aging isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue.
The forum was sponsored by the Minnesota Health and Housing Alliance, the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging and AARP. Twin Cities Public Television is creating a one-hour special on it and we’ll post that when it comes out later this year.
In upcoming posts we’ll look at finance plans introduced at the Forum, but first, following are several highlights/themes from the discussions moderated by Minnesota state commissioner of labor and industry Steve Sviggum and Larry Jacobs, director, at the University of Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance. I know a number of Changing Aging readers were there, so please share what you found interesting or heard differently . . . thanks.
- Environments are Disabled: Jan Malcolm, CEO of Courage Center, put a different paradigm on disability. Too often people live in environments that don’t allow for people with physical challenges. So why do we always focus on the person’s physical disability? Why aren’t we focusing on maximizing the physical environment in our communites to allow people young and old to live easily where they want to?
- Money Has to Follow the Person: With government reimbursement money encumbered and siloed in so many areas of health care, people are mice in a never-ending maze, captive to running to the cheese (fragmented, inflexible funding sources). Let the money follow the person, so they can make the choices in their care and service options.
- A Healthy Health Care System in America Must Include Aging Services: If we’re going to truly have a well-coordinated cradle-to-grave health care system that focuses on wellness, aging services must be an essential piece of the solution wheel. We have to connect the dots.
- New Language: What do you think of when you think of long-term care? Many people think “nursing homes.” Guess where people don’t want to live? Long-term care, er, aging services encompasses so much more than a nursing home, including: assisted living, rehab services, wellness centers, transportation, home care, memory care, technology . . . .
- Home-Centered System: Home has to be an integral part of public policy innovation. Because that’s where people most want to be. Nursing homes will still have an integral role, but they will look very different.
- This is a [Fill in the Blank] Issue: Long-term care isn’t just a long-term care issue. It’s a health care issue, business issue, education issue, economic security issue and community development issue. If we don’t ride the age wave, it’s going to damage other sectors of our communities.
- Marry Technology and Results: We spend billions in America on technology in hospitals, attempting to help people live longer. What about adding life to years? Technology in aging services, such as sensors in people’s homes that spot small health problems before they grow into big ones, is the preventive-type of technology we should be focusing on in a results-based, wellness-focused health care system.
- Fiscal Responsiblity Doesn’t End with the Mortgage: To save safety nets for those truly in need, more of us simply have to plan ahead and pay our way for aging services. The alternative is not sustainable for America.
When I think of the New England Journal of Medicine, my first thought isn’t long-term care. New medication for a disease? Yes. A study linking my favorite food with some kind of unpleasant health condition? Possible. But long-term care? Not so much.
That’s why I was surprised to see this article about LTC and the 2008 election in this month’s issue. In it, Dr. David Stevenson analyzes a variety economic, social and political factors that all come down to one conclusion: long-term care is here to stay, and candidates for political office have to start talking about it. Steveson said it best here:
“If the upcoming election truly is about creating sustainable change, then presenting an efficient and humane plan for the reform of long-term care should be viewed as an important test of the candidates’ vision for our country. ”
Then it came to me: like a new medication or research study, our long-term care crisis isn’t a stagnant situation. It’s dynamic and our politicians, like medicial researchers, must discover how can we can make long-term care affordable in America.
I think investigating AAHSA’s Long-term Care Solution would be a good start. Do you have any suggsetions to share?
That’s what happening to long-term care and services costs. Genworth Financial released their annual “Cost of Care” report today and as predicated, the cost of growing old in our country keep going up. Here are the highlights:
The average annual cost for a private room in a nursing home is$76,460, or $209 per day. That’s a 17 percent increase since 2004.
The elderly person typically spends 2- 1/2 years in a nursing home. That means that person, their loved ones and/or the governemtn would pay $190,000 for their care.
Assisted living costs rose 25 percent. Now, it costs an average of $36,090 each year to live in assisted living community.
Care costs are up even if you stay at home. The cost for a Medicare-certified home health aide to visit you rose to an average $38 an hour, up at a 7 percent since 2004.
Of course, these costs do vary by region. Check out this map to see how elders in your area fare. Here in DC, nursing homes cost $216 a day. I know I’m not prepared to pay for that for myself or a loved one. Are you?
The way we finance long-term care isn’t just a problem for older people. It affects all of us, including 20-somethings like me. That’s why our association is looking to get younger people’s opinion on caregiving and how our country pays for it.
Here are the five questions we’re asking young people (for now, that’s my mostly my friends) that I’d like any younger readers to take a moment to consider:
1. Do you worry about how you and your parents will pay for the care your older loved ones may need in the future?
2. Are you worried about how our country will cover the baby boomers’ health care costs as they age?
3. Do you worry about how you will pay for own health care when you get older?
4. Do you worry about how you would pay for care and assistance if you had
a major accident or illness?
and finally
5. Which of these four situations concerns you the most?
If you know a young person who’d be willing to share their insights, pass along the survey to them. Their responses will help us move our forward our plan to make affordable to care a little faster.
When Bill Pierce, an AAHSA board member and CEO of Baptist Retirement Communities, read an article in the The Daily Oklahoman about growing state Medicaid costs, for long-term expenses, he knew that readers should know
That’s why Bill wrote this letter to the editor describing AAHSA’s Long-term Care Solution, a plan to create a national insurance trust with premiums that provide individuals with cash benefits to pay for their long-term care expenses - as much as $27,000 a year per person. Multiply that times the millions of seniors and disabled individuals who need long-term care and you’ve got a new way to help individuals receive the care they need at a price that our people and our states can afford.
Does this sound like a solution that will stick? Let us know what you think.
There’s no question that states feel the impact of our growing aging population. Especially those who need Medicaid money to pay for their long-term care. Last year, the care those people needed cost federal and state Medicaid program $100 billion dollars. You can’t blame states for looking for solutions. But is promoting long-term care insurance the right one?
This article from today’s Wall Street Journal investigates how 14 states like California and New York are working with insurance companies to encourage their older residents to purchase private long-term care insurance. And more than a dozen others are planning similar campaigns.
Right now, millions of seniors are recieving these materials and may be considering purchasing a policy. I can’t help but wonder if this is best way for states to help the majority of their senior citizens. Citizens who can’t afford to pay for a policy and could easily qualify for the program.
Or folks like 92-year-old Rudolph Heyd. He could afford a policy, but his insurance company suddenly stopped paying benefits for his nursing home care. Why? According to the Journal, “despite his diagnoses and letters indicating otherwise from his attending physician, the insurance company deemed Heyd cognitively intact.” That meant this former grain farmer had to start paying out of pocket for his expensive care.
Instead of selling, I think states should consider “buying” something else: our solution for long-term care financing. A solution that would help all people who need long-term care, regardless of income, receive the services they need while allieviating the burden on state Medicaid programs at the same time. Sounds like a smart investment to me.
I don’t claim to know much about long-term care financing, but two Florida lawmakers are proposing the most interesting idea I’ve ever heard about the topic.
What’s their plan? To put a dollar tax on all strip club admissions in the state and give the money to low-income nursing home residents who receive Medicaid for their personal expenses (like haircuts and movie tickets).
Call me old-fashioned, but I’m not sure I’d want to tell my Grandma that a strip club’s profits paid for her weekly perm. There’s got to be a better way to pay for Mom’s manicure or Uncle Frank’s favorite food than this. A way that isn’t dependent on ticket sales or schedules. A way that gives these individuals a sense of choice when it come to how and where their money is spent.
Luckily, AAHSA has a plan that would do just that. And I know I’d be happy to share with the elderly people I love.
Forget Mardi Gras. The excitement around here goes by another name: Super Tuesday. A day when 24 states have their presidential primaries and nowadays, each party’s presidential candidate will be determined. For us political junkies, it’s like Super Bowl Sunday and the Final Four combined.
But it’s also an important day for America’s seniors. Why? Because the votes cast today could determine how our country’s government and its citizens take on challenge of providing and paying for the care these individuals deserve. Not a small task.
That’s why I was relieved when I saw this article in today’s Ledger. It includes several resources people can use to figure out where a candidate stands on issues ranging from Social Security to paying for long-term care.
Even if you’re a twenty-something like me, checking them out is great way to find out the vote you cast today will affect your older loved ones tomorrow. I know I’ll be before I vote next week.
The way our country pays for long-term care needs to be transformed. It’s not news to us, but folks around AAHSA are certainly glad that a reporter from the Chicago Tribune decided readers needed know that fact and about our plan to make it happen.
The article from yesterday’s paper starts out with a question many people have: “Who’s going to pay for the care I may need when I age?”
Then, it goes into an even more pressing question: “How can I make sure get the care I’m paying for is what I want?”
To find out the answers, the reporter consulted the experts. Including AAHSA CEO Larry Minnix. His response showcased why our solution offers sustainablility for Medicaid budgets, sensibility to policy makers and most important, security for consumers and those who care for them.
And to us, that’s news that needs to be shared with everyone.
…or at least their new program to promote person-centered care for low-income seniors. The program is called Putting People First. It’s a simple, but powerful, name for a type of public policy will soon make it “across the pond.”
The program, which will start in April 2008, will allow seniors or a person of their choosing to set up a bank account for funds associated with their care costs. After the person is means-tested, the government will pay money into the account and allow the seniors or loved ones to use for the care and services that meet the older adults’ needs.
While the program is similar to “Cash and Counseling” initiatives in several states, there is little movement among policy makers to take it nationwide.
Government officials said that they developed the plan based on British baby boomers’ desire for choice as they age. Those same boomers liked The Beatles and The Stones before the “British Invasion” hit the states. Why would American boomers not want the same kind of “invasion” in their health care?
That’s the first thought I had when I read about Hillary Clinton’s proposed plan for long-term care.
Politics aside, Clinton is the first presidential candidate to address this important issue outside of an interview or a nursing home visit. And I respect her for doing it. Her plan tackles issues that all of us face, like caring for an aging loved one or preparing for our own care needs, regardless of partisanship. My only hope is that more candidates will follow her lead and develop plans of their own. After all, aren’t politicians known for their making plans? (keeping promises, well that’s for another post…)
