“More than half of older Americans will need long-term term care. Many can’t afford the rising cost”

“More than half of older Americans will need long-term term care. Many can’t afford the rising cost,” by Eva Rothenberg, CNN

“People living in low-income communities are in danger of a slew of poor health outcomes such as chronic illness and nutritional deficiencies due to higher stress levels, unstable living conditions, and a lack of access to healthy foods and health care as they age, which means lower-income earners who may not qualify for government services like Medicaid will still likely face higher premium costs if they try to buy a long-term care insurance policy.”

LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform:

Long-term care is much more complicated than this article contemplates. Medicaid LTC is readily available to low-income people. But so is it also available to much higher income people. The problem is that Medicaid covers too many people and not well. The solution does not lie in adding more government money for LTC but in incentivizing people who can, should and will pay for their own LTC with better public policies to plan to do so. My forthcoming paper for the Paragon Health Institute, titled “Long-Term Care: The Solution” will explain how to do that. Coming next, “Long-Term Care Racism: The Cause and the Solution” will explain how to solve LTC’s problems while eliminating discrimination against the underprivileged.