LeadingAge Urges 2016 Candidates to Address Aging Services Issues
Legislation | March 13, 2016
LeadingAge's platform statement for the 2016 election cycle.
However, long-term care and aging services present pressing issues for virtually every American family. All candidates for public office must address these concerns, which will only grow in urgency in the coming years.
The LeadingAge Board of Directors has approved the following platform statement, which was developed within our Public Policy Congress. We are forwarding this statement to both political parties and will follow up with candidates running for office in this election cycle.
Our Platform Statement
The need for long-term services and supports is a risk every family faces, a highly probable risk. People reaching age 65 have a 70% chance of needing long-term services and supports, for an average of three years. The cost surpasses the ability of most families to provide out of their own earnings and savings.
Our population is growing older due to both increasing longevity and the aging of the baby boom generation. Because the need for long-term services and supports increases with age, their price tag is reaching unsustainable levels for the public programs on which many families rely.
Long-term services and supports incorporate a spectrum of services and supports that many people come to need as they age. They include affordable housing, which meets the basic human need for shelter and can provide a cost-efficient platform for the delivery of services that enable elders to live independently in their communities. The spectrum includes help with transportation, meals, home health care and personal services for elders living in the community. It includes support for family caregivers who provide the day-to-day help their older family members need, mostly on an unpaid basis. And it includes nursing homes that care for the frailest and most vulnerable elders.
Financing these services is a growing public and private challenge, and the solution must be both public and private. The current cost of paid long-term services and supports is $363 billion annually. With the aging of the population, these costs are estimated to double in constant dollars by 2025 and multiply by a factor of 5 by 2045.
Nursing home rates averaged $90,520 nationwide in 2012; the national average rate for home health aides was $21/hour. The estimated annual value of unpaid services families provide is $450 billion.
Few individuals or families have insurance to cover the cost of long-term services and supports. Only ten percent of individuals carry long-term care insurance coverage and the number of companies that offer it has dwindled from over 100 ten years ago to 12 today. And growing numbers of elders cannot afford basic housing costs. An estimated 44,000 people aged 65 and over are homeless; thousands more pay more than 50% of their monthly incomes in rent.
Most families now come to rely on public programs to finance long-term services and supports. Medicaid covers 40% of long-term care costs; another 21% is covered by Medicare. Senior housing and rental assistance provided under the Section 202 and Section 8 programs administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development meet basic housing needs of low-income elders. The Older Americans Act finances nutrition assistance, transportation, and other services for elders living in the community.
These public programs are a bedrock of long-term services and supports. There must be a commitment to improved funding for them. Senior housing and Older Americans Act programs have suffered budget cuts at the very point when a rapidly growing elder population will need these cost-efficient services. Medicaid, the largest source of funding for nursing homes, in most states grossly underpays those who care for very frail people. Medicare and Medicaid rules also limit individuals' choices as to where services are delivered, making it more difficult for people to receive services in their homes and communities.
At the same time, greater personal responsibility must be encouraged for individuals and families to plan for their own long-term services and supports needs. Public programs alone will not be able to bear the cost of the services a growing elder population will need.
Americans must have information and awareness about the need for long-term services and supports. They must have meaningful choices through a variety of public and private financing mechanisms. The available options must be feasible and sustainable. And our systems must be designed and aligned to foster quality and cost-effective services, especially through better integration and use of technology.
Long-term services and supports are not a partisan issue. Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals all face the risk of needing more long-term services and supports than they or their families can provide or pay for.
LeadingAge urges political candidates to effectively address this issue in their campaigns for office. We will look for proposed solutions in the platforms of both political parties. And we call on policymakers of every political belief to come together to work out solutions.
We at LeadingAge look forward to a continued active role in this process.