CAN LONG-TERM CARE FINANCING BE A PRIVATE AFFAIR?
The United States’ failure to protect its citizens against the catastrophic costs of long-term care (LTC) has been called “diagnosis discrimination” by Stephen McConnell of the Alzheimer’s Association, Washington, D.C. He explains that our system will pay virtually any cost to treat someone suffering a heart attack but turns its back on those suffering from the less-than-immediate, often unseen effects of Alzheimer’s disease and other chronic illnesses. Who will pay for this care–and how it will be paid for–have long been at the center of this discussion, and the argument will only become more intense as the U.S. population grows older. In this Aging Today “Special Forum Debate,” Robert L. Kane, coauthor of the new book The Heart of Long-Term Care and director of the Center on Aging at the University of Minnesota Clinical Outcomes Research Center, says it can be done without much public obligation, but, he asks, at what cost to quality care? Stephen A. Moses, president of the Center
