“Without support, seniors aging in place may elect facility-based care, study finds,” by Adam Healy, McKnights LTC News
“Older adults aging in place may rethink whether they want to receive care at home if they do not receive certain aging-in-place supports from their care providers and loved ones, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The researchers interviewed nearly 300 older adults receiving care at home and in long-term care facilities. Through a qualitative analysis of the participants’ responses, the study identified themes that swayed seniors’ decisions about where to age — whether in place or in an institutional setting.”
LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform:
Well, duh, these researchers missed the main point. Easy access to Medicaid-financed nursing home care because of lenient financial eligibility rules has diverted millions into government financed institutional care and away from mostly private pay home and community-based options for decades. That’s why the assisted living and private home care industries were so slow to develop and remain inhibited. The solution is to tap private LTC financing sources by ending easy access to Medicaid and giving consumers a real incentive to save, invest or insure for LTC. To make sense of what ails LTC, read the Paragon Health Institute’s “Long-Term Care: The Problem” and “Long-Term Care: The Solution” and watch this “virtual LTC event” featuring age wave visionary Ken Dychtwald and leading LTC researchers. To find ample private funds for LTC, check out Medicaid’s $100+ Billion Leak.