Long-Term Care in America: The Crisis All of Us Will Face in Our Lifetimes

by M.D. John P. Geyman

Overview

There is a looming crisis in our nation’s capacity to provide long-term care. The needs keep increasing while more and more of our aging seniors and large numbers of disabled can no longer gain access to affordable care.

The markers are serious—more than one-half of Americans age 65 and older are expected to need help with activities of daily living, whether in a nursing home, assisted living facility, or at home; U. S. seniors are projected to outnumber children under 18 by 2035; dementia increases as our population ages, expected to involve almost 40 percent of people over age 85; one in four Americans has a major disability; and there is a growing shortage of caregivers.

Regardless of our age and current circumstances, all of us will face the need for long-term care for a parent, another family member, or ourselves down the road. When that time comes, it is an open question whether most of us will be able to gain access to personal, affordable long-term care when we need it.

This book examines the many issues involved in charting a way toward a system of universal coverage that will fix the challenge of long-term care.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938218255
Publisher:	Copernicus Healthcare
Publication date:	01/06/2020
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.52(d)

Table of Contents

LONG-TERM CARE IN AMERICA:

THE CRISIS ALL OF US WILL FACE IN OUR LIFETIMES

CONTENTS

Preface 1

PART I: WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS?

Chapter 1 Increasing Need for Long-Term Care 5

Chapter 2 Confusing Array of Options for Long-Term Care 19

Chapter 3 High, Unaffordable Costs of Long-Term Care 35

Chapter 4 Unacceptable Quality of Long-Term Care 49

PART II: HOW DID WE GET HERE?

Chapter 5 Historical Perspective 65

Chapter 6 Market Failure and Privatization 75

Chapter 7 Inadequate Insurance Protection 89

Chapter 8 Under-Valuation of Long-Term Care 101

Chapter 9 Conservative Tax Policies vs. the Common Good 113

PART III: WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Chapter 10 Financing Reform 127

Chapter 11 Revaluing Long-Term Care and Caregivers 143

Chapter 12 Reimagining the Future of Long-Term Care 159

Appendices:

1. Some Questions to Consider in Selecting 177

2. Recommended Reading 183

3. National Long-Term Care Organizations and Resources 185

4. Discussion Questions 191

Index 195

About the Author 211

Editorial Reviews

Dr. Geyman, a former practitioner and professor, knows how to keep your close interest like no other writer, as if people matter first—up front and personal.

“Long-Term Care in America” is a gripping, authoritative, up to date report on the shameful state of long-term care for tens of millions of America’s elderly. He shows how you and your family can minimize risks and burdens, while aroused citizens make policy changes so that the later stages of life are less painful, more humane and manageable.

— Ralph Nader, attorney, co-founder of Public Citizen, co-founder of

the Center for the Study of Responsive Law, and author of many

books in the public interest, including The Seventeen Traditions.

“All of the U.S. health care system is deeply dysfunctional, but long-term care is its shabbiest and most neglected corner. Geyman brings the wisdom gained from his dual roles as a leader of American medicine and a long-time caregiver for his late wife to brilliantly analyze what’s wrong with long-term care and how it can be fixed.”

— David Himmelstein, M.D. and Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., general internists,

health policy experts, and distinguished professors of

public health at the City University of New York.

From the Publisher