“Demand Grows, Challenges Increase for Senior Housing in Low-Density Markets,” by Chuck Sudo, Senior Housing News “The coming wave of aging baby boomers will present several challenges to a senior living industry already struggling to meet the demand of seniors who cannot afford market rate independent living, assisted living or memory care. In particular, the population of older adults is quickly growing in low-density areas where it’s especially difficult to build affordable senior living projects. The Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) at Harvard University released a new report that indicates the leading edge of the silver tsunami is already
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“Medicare Players Team Up for 2020 Chronic Care Push,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Policymakers in Washington once tried to keep Medicare out of the chronic care and non-medical care markets, in part to give commercial insurers a chance to establish a private market for long-term care insurance (LTCI). Now, major carriers are showing less interest in offering private LTCI, and, in some cases, saying that they would prefer to participate in public-private LTC benefits hybrid programs. Earlier this year, managers of the Medicare Advantage program eased obstacles to carriers offering limited amounts of chronic care benefits through that program, by
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“Opinion: This isn’t your grandpa’s Social Security system,” by Martin Feldstein, MarketWatch “The current structure of pension systems in most developed countries cannot be sustained without cutting benefit levels substantially or introducing much higher taxes. A shift to a mixed system that combines the stability of the pay-as-you-go benefits with the higher return of market-based investments would permit countries to avoid that choice altogether.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): More sensible advice about Social Security.  
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“In GE Probe, Ex-Staffers Say Insurance Risks Were Ignored,” by Thomas Gryta and David Benoit, Wall Street Journal (gated) “Federal investigators are questioning former employees of General Electric Co. GE 2.58% about intricate details in a legacy insurance business that led to accounting problems at the conglomerate in the past year. The insurance business failed to internally acknowledge worsening results over the years, according to several former GE employees who said they have been interviewed by government lawyers. They described in interviews for this article examples of what they call lax managerial oversight and buried risks that ultimately kept the company from booking bigger reserves.
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