Contributing Member of the Legal, Economic & Regulatory Affairs Councils

All News Analyses by this Author

CLASS Consciousness: Problems with the "Kennedy" CLASS Act

October 23, 2009

Analysis of:Senate addresses long-term care plan: U.S. would run insurance program | www.cleveland.com

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions "Kennedy" Committee has proposed a government-run long-term care insurance program called the "Community Living Assistance Services and Supports" or CLASS Act. It does not live up to its hype, but may pass anyway riding in on the larger health reform movement.

We Reply to Washington Post Blast at Federal LTC Insurance

August 14, 2009

Analysis of:"Federal Diary: Buyers of Long-Term Care Insurance Riled by Premium Increase" | www.washingtonpost.com

Although private long-term care insurers have had to increase premiums on in-place business, private LTCI remains a much better option than going bare and relying on the social safety net. My reply to a Washington Post column explains why.

Will Health Reform Include Long-Term Care?

March 9, 2009

Analysis of:Obama’s Remarks at the White House Health Care Forum | www.nytimes.com

Long-term care financing is the 800-pound gorilla of social problems waiting just around the next bend in public policy. Even if we solve the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, which we can't without radically changing those programs, Medicaid and long-term care await. Yet, President Obama's health care reform plans don't contemplate, much less solve the challenge of funding long-term care for the boomer generation even as the Age Wave is about to crest and crash. 

Welfare for the Well-to-do?

January 16, 2009

Analysis of:Relatives Can Be Paid To Look After Elderly | online.wsj.com

Medicaid is welfare but "Medicaid planning" attorneys artificially impoverish their affluent clients to qualify them for the program.  Medicaid bankrupts state budgets, crowds out private financing for long-term care, and traps the elderly in underfunded nursing homes.  Why did a Wall Street Journal article endorse Medicaid planning based exclusively on interviews with Medicaid planners?

So What if the Government Pays for Most Long-Term Care? 2007 Data Update

January 7, 2009

Analysis of:Funding Senior Living In An Economic Downturn | online.wsj.com

Heavy government financing of long-term care since 1965 has crowded out a private market for home and community based care and stunted demand for private long-term care insurance to help pay for LTC.  The current recession is making this problem worse.  Aging demographics and unfunded entitlement liabilities will cause disaster in the future unless something is done along the lines I recommend.

If you think health care and Medicare are problems, consider long-term care and Medicaid.

January 2, 2009

Analysis of:Dr. Leavitt's Scary Diagnosis | www.washingtonpost.com

George Will's first column of the New Year delivers a dire warning about Medicare's unfunded liabilities. He mentions in passing that Medicaid, especially the welfare program's long-term care component, could become a bigger problem than Medicare. But Will vastly underestimates the Medicaid long-term care problem.  If you invest in any aspect of the long-term care service delivery and financing system, you'd better understand how and why Medicaid LTC is a looming disaster.

Feds Rank Nursing Homes Like Restaurants

December 22, 2008

Analysis of:Feds rate U.S. nursing homes | www.usatoday.com

Nursing homes can't be ranked like restaurants because their market is more regulated, more complex, and, unlike food service, mostly government-financed. The finding that for-profit nursing homes provide worse care than non-profits does not reflect a problem with profit motive, but rather that for-profit nursing homes depend more heavily on Medicaid's notoriously low reimbursements and lack supplementary funding sources, such as philanthropic funds, available to non-profit homes. Why do we have a welfare-financed, nursing-based system in the first place?  Why isn't there a market for privately financed home and community-based care and home equity conversion or long-term care insurance to pay for it? What does this mean for future prospects for investors in long-term care service delivery or financing?  These are the questions investors should be asking.

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