Center for LTC Financing                                            http://www.centerltc.org

11418 NE 19th Street                                                                                                             phone:  425-467-6840; fax:  425-467-6829

Bellevue, WA  98004                                                                                                           e-mail:  info@centerltc.org                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

LTC:  What's Wrong, Who's to Blame, How to Fix

For Immediate Release

Thursday, December 7, 2000

Contacts:     Stephen Moses, President (425-467-6840, smoses@centerltc.org)

David Rosenfeld, Exec. Dir. (425-467-6840, david@centerltc.org)

                                Amy Marohn, Media Relations (425-467-6840, amy@centerltc.org)

                        Sarah Allen, Admin. Coor. (425-467-6840, sarah@centerltc.org)

 

Bellevue, WA¾

 

"America's long-term care service delivery and financing system is a tragic mess.  The symptoms include widespread bankruptcies, collapsed stocks, scant capital, scarce staffing, high costs, low government reimbursement, little private insurance, declining quality, expanding litigation, skyrocketing liability premiums, persistent institutional bias, and a growing generation of overwhelmed family caregivers.  Unfortunately, aging demographics signal that the worst is yet to come.  What's wrong?  Who's responsible?  What should be done?  Those are the questions this study set out to address."

 

With that statement, Stephen A. Moses, President of The Center for Long-Term Care Financing in Bellevue, Washington released a report today entitled The LTC Triathlon:  Long-Term Care's Race for Survival.  Based on telephone interviews with 119 of the leading private financiers, providers and insurers of long-term care, The LTC Triathlon study is a penetrating analysis and critique of long-term care public policy.  According to the report, "We tapped into a gusher of anger and frustration directed primarily at the public programs that finance most long-term care in the United States:  Medicare and Medicaid….  For example:  'Medicaid does not cover costs' and 'There is no question the nursing home sector was killed by Medicare cuts.'  The government demands 'Ritz-Carlton care for Motel 6 rates' and simultaneously enforces an 'unprecedented regulatory Jihad.'"  The report also abounds with positive proposals for corrective action by the same private-sector expert respondents.

 

Moses stated "Our parents--the Greatest Generation--survived the Depression, fought WWII, and made a good life for us baby boomers.  Yet, we gave them a welfare-financed, institution-based long-term care system that is falling apart today.  Their biggest challenge began on Pearl Harbor Day, 1941.  It is fitting, therefore, that we boomers dedicate ourselves on Pearl Harbor Day, 2000 to our greatest challenge--to create a long-term care service delivery and financing system that works, before we need it, so that responsibility never falls upon our children.  This report is a fresh start from a different perspective on that challenge."

 

Read or download this 66-page report in .pdf format at http://www.centerltc.com/pubs/recent.htm/.  To purchase a hard copy for $49.95, call 425-467-6840 or email your order to info@centerltc.org.  Media and legislators may request one free hard copy.  The Center for Long-Term Care Financing’s first two white papers—LTC Choice:  A Simple, Cost-Free Solution to the Long-Term Care Financing Puzzle and The Myth of Unaffordability:  How Most Americans Should, Could and Would Buy Private Long-Term Care Insurance—are also available to review and/or purchase at www.centerltc.org.

 

The Center for Long-Term Care Financing is a 501(C)(3) charitable non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring quality long-term care for all Americans.  The Center promotes public policy that targets scarce government resources to the neediest, while encouraging people who are young, healthy, and affluent enough, to take responsibility for themselves.  The Center publishes LTC Bullets, a free online newsletter featuring news and views on long-term care financing.  Subscribe today at www.centerltc.org.

 

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