Bipartisan Policy Center Launches Long-Term Care Initiative
The Bipartisan Policy Center launched a new Long-Term Care Initiative with an event on April 7, featuring two esteemed panels of policymakers and experts and the release of a white paper (pdf).
The Initiative, funded by the SCAN Foundation, aims to forge bipartisan consensus on solutions to the nation’s challenges in long-term care financing and delivery.
Former senators Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Bill Frist (R-TN), former governor Tommy Thompson (R-WI), and former Congressional Budget Office Director Alice Rivlin will lead the Initiative. It will span eight months, punctuated by the publication of a set of policy options for long-term care financing and delivery.
There was agreement among the panelists that:
- long-term care costs are out of reach for most families in the nation;
- the current approach to long-term care financing — the means-tested Medicaid program — is unsustainable and inadequate; and
- the need for home-based care has been growing.
Although panelists made reference to building “the infrastructure to meet the needs of the millions who need care,” and the importance of “human capital,” there was no mention of the direct-care workforce.
— by Gail MacInnes, PHI National Policy Analyst
