“Study shows LTC costs are seniors’ No. 1 health concern, but expert says no help in sight”

 

“Study shows LTC costs are seniors’ No. 1 health concern, but expert says no help in sight,” by Jessica R. Towhey, McKnights LTC News

“The number one health-related policy concern of older adults in the United States is the cost of long-term care, but a former US congressman and insurance commissioner said there is little political appetite for the kind of changes necessary to tackle this growing problem. … ‘This remains a substantial unmet need to American families,’ former US Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News in a phone interview Tuesday. ‘Lower income families have Medicaid and, for the most part, that response when people have low assets covers their risk. The middle class is basically looking at a modest nest egg that will be completely wiped out by long-term care costs, and there’s nothing protecting them at present time.’”

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

There in a nutshell is what’s ailing LTC. If the “middle class” stood to lose their “modest nest egg” to “long-term care costs,” there would be no problem. Everyone would save, invest or insure to avoid that eventuality and high quality, privately financed LTC across the continuum would be amply available to everyone, including a tiny remnant still reliant on Medicaid. But what’s wrong now is that almost everyone qualifies easily for Medicaid LTC so no one prepares for the LTC risk and cost. We explained in the Paragon Health Institute’s “Long-Term Care: The Problem” and “Long-Term Care: The Solution.” For an introduction, watch this “virtual LTC event” featuring age wave visionary Ken Dychtwald and leading LTC researchers.