Proponents of long-term care insurance are poised to help advance the health care reform agenda of President-elect Barack Obama and the incoming Democrat-controlled Congress. Yet advocates caution that inadequate funding to Medicare and Medicaid -- even in the face of a severe recession and diminishing state budgets -- would hamper access to quality care.
They contend that poor funding could have a devastating impact on the market, considering that demographic trends portend greater utilization of LTC services.
A recent Lewin & Associates analysis shows that every $1 invested in an LTC facility supports about $5 of additional economic activity, according to Bruce Yarwood, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association, who also noted that the LTC sector's 100,000 employee vacancies serve as a valuable source of job creation.
Alan G. Rosenbloom, president of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, added that budget and policy decisions should be based on the "true" economic conditions nursing facilities face in today's marketplace.
Their remarks were made in response to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's suggestion that skilled nursing facilities should not receive a market basket cost-of-living update for fiscal year 2010.
AHCA represents nearly 11,000 nonprofit and proprietary facilities, while the AQNHC represents a coalition of 16 national LTC provider organizations that each year care for about 300,000 elderly and disabled patients in nearly 1,800 facilities across the United States.
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