Dream team

Gabrielle Giffords, the former House member who was shot and  has spent years in rehabilitation.

Dorie Seavie,  the policy research director at the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI)—a group that studies and supports the aides and other workers who are directly responsible for providing LTC services.

Bonnie Burns , a longtime California health advocate and a veteran of representing consumer interests at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

President Obama’s picks

Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winning economist who thinks the U.S. government should borrow more and spend more.

Paul Volcker.

Penn Jillette, a Libertarian illusionist. Maybe he could make the other commission members see the illusion of common ground, even though they don’t come to the table thinking it’s there.

Of course, that initial list includes no state insurance regulators. What about Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger? She seems to be open to understanding  the insurance industry’s concerns but also speaks up when she thinks insurers could serve consumers better.

Readers then sent in their own ideas. A sampling:

Claude Thau ,  a long-term care insurance (LTCI) actuary and consultant in Overland Park, Kan., who has been in charge of LTCI at Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company.

Stephen Moses, the co-founder of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, a private think tank dedicated to preventing states from using Medicaid to pay for LTC services for people who aren’t actually poor.

Tom Riekse, managing principal at LTCI Partners, who’s active in NAILBA and LTCI carrier advisory boards.

The American Academy of Actuaries put out a plea that the commission include a trained actuary, so that any recommendations that the commission just might, possibly, be actuarially plausible.

On the one hand, this is, as I said, a parlor game.

On the other hand, maybe playing this game is a way for people with an interest in LTC finance to organize their thoughts about what kind of positive future is possible.

On the third hand: Why try to think about the future? The folks in Washington will be happy to take care of that for us.