Long
Term Care, Nursing Homes, and Medicare need funds. The aging population of
America also will need this care at some point. Both the care and the funds are
essential for older population. But the question of where the funds will come
from has no concrete answer. Many people do not realize the importance and
costs of long term care until they are presented with a problem that correlates
a family or friend with long term care. Unfortunately, The United States
struggles with the costs of long term care because they are extremely high. The
reason these costs are so high is because Americans do not like the idea of
paying for this long term care in advance, or at a younger age.
The Older American Act is in
place which could help elders by providing things like meals on wheels and
elderly support in general. These precautionary measures and care could save
money in the long run. Medicare will slowly be pushed to a universal health
care system but funding could make this impossible, however, I believe it could
work with proper financial planning.
Maggie Hassan, William
Thomas, and Marco Rubio all bring an interesting view on how to provide funds
for long term care. William Thomas created the Green house project which Maggie
Hassan and Marco are in favor of, however, Marco believes premium support
systems could be the answer that allows elders to have the choice of whether to
spend their money on private insurance or Medicaid. Maggie Hassan also
disagrees with the private funding aspect of the Green House Project. All this
controversy of how funding should be accumulated, whether it be through the
government or private insurers is the face of the problem. Ted Cruz is so
against federal funding and social medicine. We face the problem of how to
settle somewhere in the middle to find funding for the health care of the aging
population. The question of whether or not we should make this long term care
insurance mandatory in the United States is presented. I find it critical that
we make this decision and decide how to start saving up funds to put towards
our care in the future. I believe that acting and taking precautionary measures
such as taking a percentage of our pay and putting it into an account to
accumulate and gain interest could be the answer. Taking such precautionary
measures and a primary approach could be essential. There needs to be a plan or
some form of collecting money for long term care to help deal with the costs
and provide the elderly with the care they deserve.
I personally think you've identified the number one challenge facing the American healthcare system over the next several decades as the Baby Boomers reach their declining and terminal years. With recent advances in healthcare and focus on healthy lifestyles, a larger percentage of folks are living into their 80s, 90s, and even beyond, in significantly greater numbers than in decades past. In other words, in years past when most of the population died in their late 60s/early 70s and with a generally faster passing, society wasn't faced with this challenge. The issue you identified is a by-product of longer lifetimes, combined with slower passings. Another wrinkle to this challenge is how American society, in generally, views older/retired people differently than do other societies. You could probably write a PhD dissertation on this issue. I wish I had a practical and straight-forward suggestion to solve this issue but unfortunately I don't. And add political grand-standing to the issue and it makes for a circus. It all boils down to financing. Who is going to pay for it? How will that financing be made as fair as possible across the board? I'm reminded of a famous quote made by a former US Senator from my state, considered an expert on tax policy, and how the general public viewed taxation: "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind that tree."
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great topic. I actually had a class for my grad program last month focused on this. There are so many major problems with long-term care in the US. The population is aging and people are living longer with chronic conditions. The demand for long term care services has risen, and continues to rise, dramatically. By 2030, 19% of the population will be older than 65. Not only this, the number of people who live to age 85 and older is projected to grow to 19 million people by 2050. Long term care is expensive, however, neither health insurance nor Medicare covers traditional "custodial care." Two-thirds of long term care is paid for by Medicaid which puts a huge strain on the government. Many Americans are unprepared and do not have sufficient savings for long term care. There are many different ways long term care is given: at home from family or paid care givers, in nursing homes, or in assisted living facilities. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the median cost for a private room in a nursing home in 2013 was $84,000 per year. Two-thirds of people age 65 and older do not have sufficient financial assets to pay for even one year of nursing home services. Thus, planning for this very expensive cost that continues to get more and more expensive needs to be a major priority for health policy.
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