AgingMedicaid

Catastrophic Insurance Could Help With Long-Term Care Expenses: Studies

(By Michelle Andrews for Kaiser Health News)

As aging baby boomers swell the ranks of elderly Americans, we’re nowhere near a solution to providing the long-term care services many of them will need.

Researchers at the Urban Institute have been examining the spending tradeoffs between two public long-term care insurance programs: a catastrophic plan and a short-term plan that would pay benefits up front. Both would be financed through a payroll tax. They also explored how differences in the timing of payouts would affect consumers’ and government spending.

“Do you use those resources to assist people who might be able to take care of themselves, or do you use it to help people who couldn’t realistically be expected to take care of themselves?” asked Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the institute who has co-authored studies on the subject. Read article here……

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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