Washington Post Magazine Looks at Assisted Living Facilities

The Washington Post Magazine this weekend profiled assisted living, an option "defined largely by what it isn't: It's not a nursing home." Assisted living facilities provide an option for seniors who are too frail to live alone but too healthy to enter a nursing home. Unlike nursing homes, which face stringent federal regulations, assisted-living facilities are regulated by states, which "may take a keen interest or very little" in overseeing such facilities. The industry is likely to undergo significant change in the coming years, particularly with "the first" of 80 million baby boomers now entering their eighties. The increased demand for assisted living services will strain a "patchwork system" made up of federal funding, private savings, long-term care insurance and "various state and local and charitable institutions," the Post reports. Robert Kramer, executive director of the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing and Care Industries, said, "We have to think through the whole question in some rational, coherent way. Is this an individual's responsibility? A government's responsibility? An entitlement, a right? ... This really needs national debate" (Span, Washington Post, 6/9). The full article is available online.