American Legislative Exchange Council - The Long-Term Care Dilemma: What States are Doing Right - And Wrong
Excerpt: "Eighty-one percent of seniors own their homes. Seventy-three percent of elderly homeowners own their homes free and clear. Nearly $2 trillion worth of home equity is held by seniors that could go to offset the cost of long-term care - enough money to solve the long-term care financing crisis now and in the future."
Excerpt: "Nursing homes face severe financial challenges throughout the United States. A spate of bankruptcies in the late 1990s and early 2000s decimated many of the industry's largest nursing facility companies. At one point, 22 percent of U.S. nursing home beds were in bankrupt facilities."
Policy Analysis - Aging America's Achilles' Heel: Medicaid Long-Term Care
Excerpt: "Medicaid is supposed to be America's LTC safety net for the poor. Instead, it is the principal LTC payor for nearly everyone. Medicaid's LTC benefit has become 'inheritance insuance' for baby boomers, lulling them into a false sense of security regarding their own future LTC needs."
Health Care News - States Can Fix Long-Term Care Problems
Excerpt: "One way to relieve the LTC financing burden on Medicaid is to increase private funding sources, but that will not happen as long as Medicaid LTC benefits are easy to obtain after the insurable event occurs. Despite the conventional wisdom that Medicaid eligibility requires total impoverishment, the truth is most elderly Texans with a nursing home level of medical need qualify easily for Medicaid-financed LTC. Middle-income and affluent Texans routinely qualify for benefits."