Barack Obama and John McCain on Long-Term Care Financing

Tonight is the second debate of the presidential candidates. It will be a town-hall forum. Wouldn’t it be nice if one of the citizens – or Tom Brokaw (the NBC moderator living fully after 50) asked about the candidates’ ideas on the future of financing long-term care and aging services in America?Here’s a question that AARP Magazine recently put to the two candidates:

How would you shift long-term care services and financing so that people can afford to stay in their homes and communities as long as appropriate? (Below are their answers to the AARP questions . .; . do you agree … disgree … or would you like to see a different answer?)John McCain: I am confident in the pioneering approaches for delivering care to people in a home setting, and would look to them first as models for how we need to approach this issue. There have been a variety of promising state-based experiments such as Cash and Counseling or The Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). Through these programs, seniors are given a monthly assistance which they can use to hire workers and purchase care-related services and goods. They can get help managing their care by designating representatives, such as relatives or friends, to help make decisions. it also offers counseling and bookkeeping services to assist consumers.Barack Obama: The long-term care system is heavily biased toward institutional care — even though most people would rather remain at home — and the quality of care is often poor. Moreover, nursing home and home care are very expensive, and Medicare coverage for both is limited, making catastrophic expenses routine. As President, I will work to give seniors choices about their care, consistent with their needs, and not biased towards institutional care. I will work to reform the financing of long-term care to protect seniors and families from impoverishment or debt. I will work to improve the quality of elder care, including by giving our long-term care and geriatric workforce the respect and support they deserve and training more nurses and health care workers in geriatrics.

Support or Oppose

AARP also put three statements in front of the candidates and asked if they supported them or opposed them:1. Increasing consumer choice and control for people needing long-term care.2. Improving standards and incentives for quality care.3. Providing family caregiving initiatives, such as respite care.Barack Obama supported all three; John McCain chose not to answer. (No clue as to why McCain chose not to answer.)

Want to read more on long-term care financing? Visit our special section devoted to the subject.