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Senate Aging
Committee Chairman Warns Congress of Long-Term Care Crisis
March 21, 2002 - Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), chairman of
the Senate Special Committee on Aging, urged Congress to consider a
comprehensive long-term care system and warned that the burgeoning
pressures of long-term care services and escalating Medicaid costs may
soon overwhelm state budgets.
"Our nation is
sorely in need of a comprehensive long-term care system," said Sen.
Breaux. "The current system costs billions of dollars yet fails to
deliver the services we expect or to provide seniors with the
essentials they need for daily life. With 77 million baby boomers
approaching retirement, this crisis must be addressed now to preserve
our fiscal solvency and ensure state budgets are not completely
overrun."
Sen. Breaux's
comments came at an Aging Committee hearing examining how the failure
to establish a national long-term care system will harm our nation's
fiscal stability. With Medicaid and long-term care costs skyrocketing,
Sen. Breaux and the witnesses urged federal, state and local
legislators to look at Medicaid and long-term care alongside Medicare
and Social Security as the final component of any entitlement reform
effort.
The hearing,
which included the testimony of Gov. Paul Patton (D-Ky.) and David
Walker, Comptroller General of the General Accounting Office, was the
eighth in the Aging Committee's series of long-term care hearings. At
the hearing, Gov. Patton called for a commission to reform Medicaid -
a joint initiative among Congress and the governors to examine
Medicaid expenditures and consider options for reform. Comptroller
Walker outlined the federal resources needed to sustain long-term care
programs for an aging baby boom population
Demographic
shifts suggest there may be a clash among the expectations of baby
boomers and the reality of available resources. Most federal and state
long-term care funding supports institutional care, but provides
little support for home and community-based programs.
The aging wave
of 77 million baby boomers will make it more difficult than ever for
federal and state governments to finance long-term care. Boomers are
expected to live longer and more frequently access programs to care
for them as they age. However, surveys indicate that most boomers do
not want to live in nursing homes and expect to have a wide variety of
long-term care options as they age.
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