U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Ponders Future of Long Term Care

On April 18, Senator Herb Kohl Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Commmittee on Aging convened a hearing to consider how best provide and finance long-term care services and supports (LTSS) for millions of Americans. In his opening remarks, Sen. Kohl recited sobering statistics: current cost for LTSS is more than $300 billion a year and Medicaid alone projects $1.9 trillion in costs over the next 10 years with an annual average increase increase of 6.6%. He noted that America is going to have to do more with less: finding more efficient ways to provide care because (Federal and state) money will not be there.

Two themes emerged from the testimony given by a distinguished panel of experts: innovation is critical to expanding the capacity and efficacy of the LTSS infrastructure, yet encumbered by the Medicaid program's exclusive reliance on skilled nursing care (by design), and secondly, stakeholders are uncertain as to how to encourage Americans to take responsibility for funding their future long term care needs.

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U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Ponders Future of Long Term Care