Dear Center Supporter

Dear Center Supporter,

In 1965, who would have believed that new public policy aimed at helping the indigent would, in time, serve even the most financially advantaged?

That our Medicaid program—created as a “safety net” for the truly needy—would be stretched far beyond its intended scope?

That a manageable number of Medicaid recipients would grow exponentially along with costs?

That a system created to help America’s most vulnerable seniors would ultimately deny them access to quality long-term care in their preferred settings?

After many years of strain and abuse, our current system for financing long-term care is in serious trouble. Soon enough, this system—plagued by over-reliance on insufficient public reimbursement—will be completely consumed. How? Read on.

Evidence abounds of the damage resulting from years of well-intentioned, but ill-fated public policy. Examples are like small brush fires that—taken alone—are of limited danger, but—occurring simultaneously—have the potential for catastrophic consequences:

· Medicaid planning flourishes from coast to coast despite ostensibly strict eligibility rules.

· Nursing homes around the country are struggling to survive financially with reimbursement rates from Medicaid that are often below the cost of the care they provide.

· Hundreds of home health agencies have disappeared in recent years.

· Many assisted living facilities are filling far more slowly than anticipated.

· Caregivers are in desperately short supply, whether they are low-wage nurses' aides in long-term care facilities or unpaid friends and family in private homes.

· Litigation against nursing homes and assisted living facilities for allegedly poor care is on the rise and liability insurance premiums are going through the roof.

· LTC insurance market penetration is disappointing despite the promising demographics.

· All the while, the American public continues blithely to ignore the risk of long-term care until it’s too late. They either “spend down” for real, or artificially with the help of a professional Medicaid planner, to qualify for welfare.

What Is The Center for LTC Reform, Inc. Doing About It?

Thanks to the generous support of our members, the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, Inc. is working hard to combat these LTC brush fires with a firewall of education and advocacy. Our ongoing activities include thoughtful analysis of LTC financing issues and wide publication of sensible recommendations through:

· LTC Bullets (the Center's online newsletter) sent to 4,200+ subscribers in all spheres of influence who forward Bullets to thousands more;

· Media interviews with respected publications like Kiplinger’s, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and dozens more;

· Bylined articles presenting the Center’s analysis and public policy recommendations published in influential journals, magazines, and books;

· Speeches at key conferences;

· Original research and reports frequently referenced by public policy experts, long-term care professionals, academics and the media;

· Systematic rebuttal of inaccuracies in the media about private financing of long-term care and proactive, positive advice to reporters and editors;

· Promulgation to consumers of the hard truths Americans need to know regarding the deficiencies of publicly financed long-term care;

· Tireless advocacy for a public policy solution to our LTC financing crisis.

From its inception in 1998, the Center for Long-Term Care Financing reached an audience of over 250,000,000 million readers, viewers and listeners. If our efforts contributed to only 1 in 5,000 of these people purchasing long-term care insurance, for example, the Center helped protect at least 50,000 people from one of life’s greatest risks. Moreover, the Center’s Earned Media Value¹ has been impressive relative to our budget. In its new form, the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, Inc. will continue this distinguished record of public policy advocacy and consumer education.

You’ve benefited from our work in the past, won’t you help us continue?

What More Can Be Done?

· How long can the mounting number of LTC brush fires be kept under control?

· How long can the flames be quelled with ideas for responsible reform when advocates of the status quo continuously add fuel to the fire with seductive, but fiscally unrealistic proposals?

· How long before these fires collapse into a raging inferno that consumes our entire long-term care system?

We must all acknowledge the futility of current long-term care public policy and dedicate ourselves to changing it.

The Center for Long-Term Care Reform, Inc. is working with many of the leading people and organizations in long-term care to build a new model for a rational and fiscally viable long-term care financing system.

The Center’s "LTC Triathlon" project brought together financiers, providers and insurers to facilitate a new political and economic partnership between these three main private long-term care interest groups. We believe that enlisting the help of the private, for-profit sector of the economy to solve a daunting fiscal problem for the public, not-for-profit sector of the economy is a sensible and worthy enterprise.

The Center hosted a series of "LTC Summit Conferences" that began this important dialogue and built on the findings of our published report, The LTC Triathlon: Long-Term Care’s Race for Survival. We will continue to build bridges of understanding and cooperation between the providers, financiers and insurers of long-term care.

Are you willing to make a financial contribution in support of our ongoing efforts?

Why Do We Need You as A Partner?

We hope to carry on the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, Inc. with renewed dedication, strength and support. The Center’s influence and impact will continue to grow and the contributions of your colleagues and companies help make it all possible. Yet, our goals are ambitious, the need is great, and we want you to be a part of our growth in the coming year.

Your membership contribution will help us to:

· Promote private financing and discourage welfare dependency for long-term care;

· Increase our offerings of timely and impactful data, analysis, and commentary;

· Secure more grant funding to grow our education and advocacy activities;

· Intensify our efforts to take the Center’s message across the country with “Speaker’s Bureau” and “LTC Academy” programs; and

1 Earned Media Value represents the amount of money the Center or our supporters would have to spend on print space and air time to purchase the publicity we generate for responsible long-term care planning.