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September 21, 2006 at 12:18 AM
The United States needs to get employers and workers involved with preparing for future long term care costs.
Speakers delivered that message here at a long term care symposium sponsored by Genworth Financial Inc., Richmond, Va.
Already, “because LTC costs drive much of Medicaid growth, LTC care reform–primarily within Medicaid reform efforts–has become a top policy priority for the federal government and most states,” according to the authors of a paper released by the American Health Care Association, Washington, and the National Center for Assisted Living, Washington.
Meanwhile, the federal government has only about half as much money as it needs to finance existing benefits promises made through the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid LTC programs, according to Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was director of the Congressional Budget Office from 2003 to 2005.
“There has to be reductions in these commitments,” said Holtz-Eakin, who is now director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York.
