December 12, 2023, Washington, DC—A top aging services leader in a letter sent to members of Congress and an opinion piece published in The Hill this week urges lawmakers to be “courageous” and “offer bold solutions” to address the crisis millions of older adults and families are navigating now as they struggle to access and pay for long-term care. 

Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, which represents hundreds of thousands of dedicated professionals serving older adults in nonprofit nursing homes, home health agencies, hospice programs, and senior living communities, points to the harrowing stories told in “Dying Broke,” recently published by the New York Times/KFF Health News. The series explores the tough choices and decisions older adults, family members and other caregivers face to get much-needed care—largely the result of America’s insufficient approach to financing long-term services and supports. 

“Dying Broke,” Sloan says in The Hill, “is an important and unflinching look at how our country is failing us.” And consumers, she notes, are not suffering alone. Insufficient support for providers is forcing more and more of LeadingAge’s nonprofit members to take extreme measures to make ends meet, including reducing services and being forced to close or sell. Residents recently held a bake sale, for instance, to help raise funds for one struggling Rhode Island member nursing home, but the $2,000 raised can’t match the needs. 

These issues were foreseeable, she says, citing nonprofit providers’ longstanding efforts to improve America’s broken system. “We’ve offered new ideas to solve the long-term care financing crisis, and have supported multiple attempts at federal legislation—including the CLASS Act, at one time part of the Affordable Care Act; the WISH Act, the Medicare Long-Term Care Services and Supports Act of 2018 and other efforts dating back to the 1980s. Sadly, progress has been elusive.” 

Sloan warns that a continued lack of federal government action will only result in more suffering and, using “Dying Broke” as a call to action, invites Congress to act. 

The ubiquity of the issue may be why there is strong bipartisan support for action: 92 percent of Democrats, 80 percent of Republicans and 84 percent of Independents say “the government must make a bigger investment in services and care for seniors,” according to research from 3W Insights. 

“A comprehensive and equitable long-term care financing system would make all the difference,” Sloan says. “The longer lives that many Americans will enjoy offer enormous potential for our nation. We must seize this opportunity and ensure that potential isn’t squelched by an oppressive and unfair long-term care financing system. The solutions are complicated—but smart approaches abound.

Let’s work together to find solutions so that help and supports are available to all of us equitably.”