Diane M. and I were discussing several days ago the on-going initiatives to provide affordable long-term care for the soon-to-be-crashing-on-our-shores “silver tsunami.” Many folks had held out hope for 19 long months as the CLASS act deliberated on how to make access to affordable long term care for a greater percentage of Americans fiscally solvent only to learn that they learned that they cannot do it!
Well, despite the CLASS acting being officially dropped from the Affordable Care Act, a new commission has been called and appointed that has been charged with proposing legislation in 6 months related to affordable long term care. Paula Span offers some insightful analysis and concludes, as I’m sure many of us do, “We’ll see.”
“But perhaps these appointments hardly matter. “I can’t imagine anything coming out of this commission that won’t be totally forgotten a year from now,” said Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance. “How many commissions have there been?”
Yet one thing that he and the proponents at Advance Class can agree on — maybe the only thing — is that this issue demands attention.
Otherwise, Mr. Slome says, we are stuck with what we have when it comes to older people who might need expensive care for 30 years, and disabled people who might need care for even longer. And what we have, he said, amounts to “a little here, a little there, a little Medicare, a lot of Medicaid, a little long-term care insurance and a lot of unpaid family caregiving.” (I would say very little long-term care insurance, and a vast amount of unpaid family care.)” Read more…
