Congress is turning its’ attention to long-term care insurance producing information about how such insurance may help consumers make informed decisions for their long-term care needs.

U.S. News & World Report reports on LTCI, which “is not health insurance but protection against progressive deterioration that renders people incapable of caring for themselves physically or mentally.” The magazine notes that “the cost of dealing with these conditions can be staggering, depleting life savings and forcing people into poverty” and describes this type of insurance as “an expensive and complicated product… sold by a shrinking number of financially challenged insurers and subject to differing state rules that aren’t always effectively enforced.”

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Today, U.S. Senators Mel Martinez (R-FL) and Herb Kohl (D-WI) of the Special Committee on Aging examined the long-term care insurance industry. The high cost of long-term care and the current economic instability are creating significant financial planning challenges for baby-boomers, seniors, and individual states. The committee discussed the industry’s current limitations and how to prepare for the growing number of seniors who will be in need of long-term care.

“When planning their financial future, many Americans overlook the possibility of long-term care,” said Martinez, the lead Republican on the Senate Special Committee on Aging. “The number of seniors requiring long-term care is on the rise, and these expenses could cause a person to quickly deplete their finances and become dependent on Medicaid. Personal planning, such as purchasing a long-term care insurance policy, offers a viable way to save seniors’ assets and reduce a potentially large future financial burden.”

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As lawmakers return to Washington to tackle health care reform, AARP is pressing them to improve the country’s long-term care system as a part of comprehensive reform. Millions of older Americans rely on Medicaid for the long-term services and supports they need, but the program’s bias toward institutional care prevents most from getting more affordable care where they want it: their own homes.

“It’s shameful that so many people are forced into nursing homes when we could improve their quality of life and typically spend less money by caring for them at home,” said AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond. “As we overhaul the health care system, we need to build on win-win solutions that expand choices and could save billions of dollars.”

Under current law, Medicaid-the largest payer of long-term care-has an institutional bias. While states must provide coverage of nursing facility services, they do not have to cover most home and community based services (HCBS). On average, Medicaid can pay for three older people in HCBS for every one person in a nursing home. Despite this, HCBS is often one of the first programs to lose state funding during an economic downturn, often forcing more people into higher cost nursing facilities even if they would prefer to remain at home.

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U.S. Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) introduced an effort aimed at updating the U.S. Census’ current function questions to better improve our nation’s long-term care services and support systems. By replacing a small portion of the survey with standardized function questions used by medical providers, the Disability Data Modernization Act will provide more accurately collected data used for planning the future health care needs of elderly and disabled Americans.

“The need for quality long-term care is exceedingly on the rise - it is vital we act now,” said Martinez, lead Republican on the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging. “In its current form, the U.S. Census is not meeting its legislative purpose. By changing a small number of questions, we can better plan for a coordinated, comprehensive, and compassionate system of long-term care which will allow each and every one of us to live out our lives with dignity and independence.”

This act will require the U.S. Census to restructure the American Community Survey, and any alternate or subsequent form of disability data gathering instrument by using: the Katz Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Index - ADLs are activities essential for self care, such as ability to bathe, dress, use the toilet, etc., and, the Lawton-Brody

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A new model for the funding of long-term care for older people is needed in the UK, delegates at the Actuarial Profession’s Health and Care Conference in Glasgow heard today.

In a workshop titled ‘Who cares?’ Reforming long-term care, University of Birmingham Health Services Management Centre co-director Jon Glasby said the current system placed an unfair burden on individuals.

Professor Glasby said alternative methods of funding long-term care that needed to be discussed included:

- introducing compulsory long-term care insurance;
- abolishing long-term care fees;
- drawing on value of homes through equity release.

Professor Glasby said he hoped the government’s Green Paper on care and support, due this year, would provide an opportunity to stimulate debate on the issue and lead to an overhaul of the system.

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