The American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI) is heading to Washington tomorrow for a long-term care (LTC) sales conference.
Jesse Slome, executive director of AALTCI, got some attention for the conference by putting a little information about it at the bottom of a national press release calling for the presidential candidates to give us their LTC plans.
“Now we need to address long-term care,” Slome said.
The truth is the truth: Slome is right. The candidates should give us detailed summaries of their views on LTC policy.
Ideally, they should stand up in an auditorium somewhere and give the topic the kind of attention they would give foreign policy, or general domestic policy issues. LTC services could soon absorb as much of our gross domestic product as military spending and foreign aid programs combined. It would be great if debate organizers could recognize that LTC policy is worth a whole debate on its own, not just a few moments tucked into a domestic policy grab bag debate.
One of the top candidates, Dr. Ben Carson, is a neurosurgeon. He put his campaign on hold in May, when he found out that his own mother had Alzheimer’s disease and was seriously ill.