A New Study, Underfunding Medicaid and DD-Day

Newsweek columnist George Will calls it DD-Day, the day the Demographic Deluge begins. That is January 1, 2008, when the first of 78 million baby boomers reach 62, the age at which a majority of Social Security receipients begin to receive benefits. Will writes that Social Security is unsustainable in its current format, but a picture of health as it relates to Medicare. And then there’s that thing called Medicaid — the largest payer for long-term care in America.A New Study on Medicaid FundingAccording to a new study commissioned and released last weeby the long-term care trade group the American Health Care Association and conducted by the accounting firms BDO Seidman/Eljay,LLC, states are underfunding the actual cost of providing seniors’ critical nursing home care by at least $4.4 billion annually, or, $13.15 per patient day €“ representing a dramatic 45% increase from 1999 ($9.05) through 2007.The new study also found that the states with the greatest disparity between the actual cost of providing quality care and Medicaid reimbursements are, in order of severity, Illinois, New Jersey, Wisconsin (with $27.29 per person daily shortfall) , Minnesota (with $24.96 daily shortfall), Vermont, New Hampshire, Missouri, Delaware, Washington and Massachusetts. The study goes on to make a connection that cutting Medicaid adversely impacts Medicare.Moving the Discussion ForwardUnfortunately this study got little media coverage. Although more people are talking about how to pay for the future of eldercare, it’s not yet a top-tier issue nationally. (That will undoubtedly change, though.).- The public’s and most policymakers’ focus in this nanosecond is on ‘health care’, not ‘long-term care’. Take a look at the Presidential candidates’ health care plans at how they address health care and then long-term care (there’s a big difference). – Americans don’t want to live in nursing homes and the way ‘The System’ works today, nursing home services are a huge drain on government dollars. It’s easier for ‘The System’ to simply let the market watch nursing homes that can’t diversify go away. That’s great for those people who can access the innovators, but not so great if one of those innovators isn’t serving your community.The very good thing is that the issue of how to pay for the huge wave of seniors’ care is starting to rise. Creating Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s was a long, arduous process. But then people, such as a smart, amibitious guy who wanted to be President, John F. Kennedy, started to become champions for aging. There will be new political champions on renovating or rebuilding how we pay for and deliver care for seniors in America. Right now such revolutionaries and innovators exist in the private and non-profit sectors.When it comes to public policy changes, the new champions in elective office will be those who can make this issue relevant to all Americans, where businesses, labor unions, religious organizations, and Joe and Josephine Mainstreet Americans see the need for and call for change. That’s not a big stretch, as baby boomers pointed out in our Age Wave study, it’s a great opportunity for someone who wants to grab it and be seen by Red and Blue America as a pragmatic, visionary, creator of solutions.