Demise of Obama long-term care plan leaves serious gap for baby boomers

[G_j]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9914658

Demise of Obama long-term care plan leaves gap

AP foreign, Wednesday October 26 2011

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

Associated Press= WASHINGTON (AP)

It's the one major health expense for which nearly all Americans are uninsured. The dilemma of paying for long-term care is likely to worsen now that the Obama administration pulled the plug on a program seen as a first step.

The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, or CLASS, was included in the health overhaul law to provide basic long-term care insurance at an affordable cost. But financial problems dogged it from the outset.

Those concerns prompted the administration to announce that CLASS would not go forward. Yet it could take a decade or longer for lawmakers to tackle the issue again, and by then the retirement of the Baby Boomers will be in full swing.

Most families don't plan for long-term care. Often the need comes unexpectedly: an elder takes a bad fall, a teen is calamitously injured in a car crash or a middle-aged worker suffers a debilitating stroke.

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[G_j]

1. k

[jwirr]

2. When I was working at social services MN was already thinking of

that time. That is why we moved toward home health services and turned out nursing homes into intensive care units. When you get old social services starts evaluating you according to you needs. They have various services that they offer to help people stay in their homes: meals on wheels, home health services including a RN, homemaking services including snow removal and housekeeping, transportation services when not available, hospice and as a last resort the nursing home. Social services uses a two member team including the social worker and a RN as well relatives.

This does keep a lot of people out of the more expensive care and because people prefer home it works pretty well.