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Donna Taylor's father planned ahead - he had insurance and savings to pay for health coverage when he retired. But when he got sick and couldn't walk, he found he did not have enough coverage to pay for care for himself and his disabled wife.
We are not ready for healthy retirement, and we are desperately unprepared for the costly medical and long-term care we are likely to need in old age.
In not too many years, long-term care nursing home beds may be as rare as Republicans in Massachusetts.
The differing interests and preferences of seniors and near-seniors reflect the perils of incremental reform in reaching universal coverage.
The real challenge for long-term care reform remains indifference, rather than outright opposition.
A look at Republican efforts to drastically change Medicare in the 1990's shows that the Democratic health reforms plans aren't the real threat to the program.
In truth, seniors are likely to big winners if responsible health reform passes and prime victims if it fails.
We live in a time when seemingly no subject is taboo. Yet, there remains one subject Americans seem unable to talk about in an honest and rational way: the inevitable decline of old age.
Physicians, while disputing the charges of plans for euthanasia, say the debate on what is in the House health bill on end-of-life care could help focus attention on an underfunded service.
Section 1233 of the health overhaul bill approved by three House committees has been the subject of great debate. We present the language as written in the bill itself.
While states and the federal government struggle to update Medicaid though a maze of waiver programs and patches to an increasingly outdated law, their efforts are a little like trying to add disc breaks and electronic ignition to a 1965 Plymouth. It is, in the end, still a 1965 Plymouth.
There are two separate problems that led to the shortage of health care workers to treat the elderly and disabled.
The federal Nursing Home Compare Web site has drawn millions of visitors since it posted movie-review-style ratings of nursing homes last year. Both the industry and consumer advocates are seeking changes, including the way homes' staffing levels are assessed.
To encourage people to buy long-term care insurance, more states are starting programs that allow people to keep some assets if they exhaust insurance benefits and need to go on Medicaid. Without such an arrangement, they would have to "spend down" assets to qualify for Medicaid. But, experts warn, the policies need strong inflation protections.
Alzheimer's is thought of as a disease of the elderly, but hundreds of thousands of cases are in men and women under 65. Because the disease makes it difficult to work, these people often lose their jobs - and their health insurance.
Medicaid is front and center in the debate on overhauling the U.S health system and expanding coverage to the uninsured. With 60 million enrollees, Medicaid dwarfs other insurance programs, including its cousin, Medicare, which covers 44 million elderly and disabled people. Here's a chance to test your knowledge of Medicaid.
Patients who are readmitted to the hospital soon after they're discharged cost the health care system billions of dollars a year in unnecessary spending. These "frequent fliers," as doctors sometimes call them, illustrate the worst aspects of poorly coordinated care. Innovative programs may serve as models for fixing the problems.
The over-65 crowd, with its outsized political clout, will have a big say in the fate of any health overhaul. And that helps explain a recent agreement on drug discounts involving the pharmaceutical industry, the White House and Congress.
Once a senior begins receiving long-term care services, she and her family often are in for two shocks. The first is that Medicare won't pay beyond perhaps a few months after a hospitalization. The second is that while Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor, may help, chances are it will only do so for nursing home residents.
Sen. Ted Kennedy is vowing to make long-term care insurance part of health reform. But even he has an uphill struggle to make sure it's included in any broad-based bill.
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