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Policy Recommendations for Future of Long-Term Care
By
Michael A. Piekarz
Staff Writer
Georgetown
University researchers have released four distinct policy options
for including long-term care support and services as part of a nationwide
health care reform package following on the heels of a survey showing
strong public support for improved coverage for long-term care services.
In July 2009, the nonprofit SCAN Foundation released the results of its National
Omnibus Survey on Long-Term Care, showing that nearly 80 percent of Americans
favored including improved coverage for long-term care services as part of a
nationwide reform of health care.
The Georgetown report, entitled “Long-Term Care in Health Care Reform:
Policy Options to Improve Both,” builds upon earlier research and explores
how to improve access to long-term care for people with limited financial resources,
including ways to strengthen long-term care protections for the broader population.
According to the researchers, Medicaid budgets have been soaring, and nursing
home and assisted living costs have risen sharply over the past five years. In
contrast, home-based care costs have remained relatively flat.
Because of the apparent stability of home-based care costs, the policy options
in the Georgetown report offer ways to improve cost-effectiveness of health and
long-term care services by improving coverage for long-term care services that
can be provided at home rather than through more costly nursing home care.
Keeping the beneficiaries of in-home care services independent and better coordinating
the delivery of medical and long-term care services were also considered by researchers
when developing their recommendations.
Current healthcare reform packages being developed by Washington policymakers
include a provision of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports
Act (CLASS Act), which would create a voluntary insurance program offering a
daily stipend to help Americans pay for basic long-term care services at home.
Researchers and advocates for home long-term care support services hope that
Capitol Hill lawmakers make note of the Georgetown policy recommendations.
“With recent polling data indicating widespread public support for long-term
care reform, the options presented in the Georgetown report provide federal policymakers
a succinct guidebook for enacting meaningful reform that will benefit the growing
population of people aged 65 and older,” stated Dr. Bruce Chernof, president
and CEO of The SCAN Foundation.
The first two options in the Georgetown report would improve long-term care for
people with low incomes and limited financial resources.
Provisions include modernizing Medicaid, tailoring services to better individual
needs and using resources more effectively.
The third and fourth options aim to strengthen long-term care protections for
the broader population through better coordination of medical and long-term care
for Medicare enrollees and by establishing insurance protection for people of
all ages and incomes.
The four proposals are not considered mutually exclusive.
“All four proposals could be enacted together,” said Georgetown University
researcher Harriet L Komisar. “We selected proposals that we think make
sense right now … they would enable more people to obtain the vital long-term
care supports and services they need, and at the same time enhance major health
and economic policy goals by improving the health and well-being of American
families and the cost-effectiveness of health care delivery.”
Others involved in preparing the recommendations included Judy Feder from Georgetown
University, Anne Tumlinson of Avalere Health LLC, and Sheila Burke from Harvard
University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
This page and its contents ©2009
Metropolitan News Company, Inc.
