096 Paying for Long-Term Care: 2019 Updates

In This Episode:

Dr. K talks with Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute and an expert on how policy and tax issues affect older adults and their long-term care. He is also the author of Caring for Our Parents: Inspiring Stories of Families Seeking New Solutions to America's Most Urgent Health Crisis. They discuss:

• What is long-term care and who usually ends up paying for it
• Why so many older adults end up needing some form of long-term care
• That it's Medicaid, not Medicare, that sometimes covers long-term care needs for older adults
• What triggers need to occur for long- term care insurance policies to kick-in
• Currently available options to pay for long-term care and ongoing living assistance
• Why insurers have had difficulty offering affordable long-term care insurance
• What happened to the federal long-term care program the CLASS act
• How Washington State's new public long-term care insurance plan is set up, and why it won't help today's older adults
• The new Medicare rules that might enable Medicare Advantage plans to offer the non-medical services that can help older adults age in place
• What are the benefits of Medicare Advantage care plans
• What politicians are saying about this, and why we don't hear more about long-term care issues

Related episodes:

059 Interview: Long-Term Care Insurance & Financing Late-Life Care Needs

074 Interview: How the Village Model Supports Aging in Place & Community

017- Interview: Paying for Long-Term Care & Other Family Caregiving Challenges

Related Resources:

• HowardGleckman.com
  • It's Official: Washington will be the First State with Public Long-Term Care Insurance
  • What a Medicare Advantage Personal Services Benefit Looks Like
  • How Can You Help Older Adults Age at Home? Ask What They Need, Then Help Them
• Community Living Assistance Services & Supports (CLASS) Act
• The Long-Term Care Poll
• A Consensus Framework for Long-Term Care Financing Reform

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