Contacts:
Susan Feeney (AHCA/NCAL) 202-898-6333
Amy Weiss (Alliance) 202-203-0448

Leading National Long Term Care Advocacy Groups Praise Recommendations Offered by Kerrey-Gingrich Reform Commission

AHCA, NCAL, Alliance Urge 2008 Presidential Candidates to Offer Solutions, Engage in Needed National Debate; Groups to Offer New Long Term and Post-Acute Care Financing Plan Early Next Year

Washington, DC –In praising the work and recommendations offered today by the national blue ribbon panel headed by former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), three of the nation’s leading long term care advocacy organizations said ideas and policy solutions related to long term care financing reform must become a broader part of the 2008 presidential campaign dialogue, and said they would be putting forward their own comprehensive reform proposal in early 2008 to help do so.

“Bob Kerrey, Newt Gingrich and the excellent, pioneering work of the National Commission for Quality Long Term Care (NCQLTC) deserve enormous praise for placing front and center an intelligent policy framework to help guide our nation as we debate how best to ensure every American retiree, now and in the future, has ready access to quality long term care,” stated Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of the American Health Care Association (AHCA). “We believe the policy roadmap NCQLTC has put on the table today, as well as the plan we will offer in January, will engender a detailed, thoughtful, much-needed discussion of these key issues as the 2008 presidential race unfolds.” 

Alan G. Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, applauded Kerrey, Gingrich and the non partisan board of appointed NCQLTC Commissioners for pointing out how longer life spans, a rapidly growing elderly population and rising care costs are already creating enormous strains on our long term care financing system: “As we can all readily agree that adequate, stable funding is integral to ongoing quality improvements, we can also concur the way in which we currently finance long term care requires substantial structural changes if we are to successfully meet our responsibilities as a society, and as a nation. The next President and Congress will be required to address the nation’s enormous health care challenges, and 2008 must be the year long term care reform is necessarily included in this broader health care reform debate.”

The Executive Director of the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL), David Kyllo, said the NCQLTC recommendations focusing on quality, workforce, technology, and financing reform are of major importance across the entire spectrum of long term care – from nursing homes to assisted living to home-based care. “The public needs to hear a broader discussion of, frankly, the most important health care policy issues not currently being discussed in appropriate detail. This must change immediately if we are to guarantee our parents, children and grandchildren can age in the setting most appropriate to them.”

The National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care is a non-partisan, independent body charged with improving long-term care in America. The Commission, overseen by The New School and Co-Chaired by Kerrey and Gingrich, grew out of a profession-led quality initiative called “Quality First – A Covenant for Healthy, Affordable, and Ethical Long Term Care.” In 2002, AHCA, NCAL, the Alliance and the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA), called for an independent commission to examine the quality of long term care in America, identify factors influencing the ability to improve quality, and, recommend national strategies for sustainable quality improvement. Today’s NCQLTC report is the culmination of this effort.

Yarwood, Rosenbloom and Kyllo expressed major concern about survey results released today by the Kerrey-Gingrich panel showing vast confusion among the electorate in regard to how long term care is financed. “The results of this poll are all the more reason 2008 presidential aspirants of both parties owe it to the nation to raise public awareness of the fact individuals must become far more involved in how they will help finance and take control of their own long term care needs,” they stated.

Alarmingly, the survey data released by the NCQLTC found 34% believe most long term care is paid for by Medicare, 20% believe most long term care is paid for by Medicaid (in fact the largest source of funding, accounting for 49% of long term care spending in 2004) and 22% believe individuals and their families pay for most long term care. 13% said they do not know how most long term care is financed under the current system. 

Building on the release of the NCQLTC recommendations today, the AHCA-Alliance-NCAL plan to be released in January will propose a new model for both financing and delivering long-term and post-acute care that is sustainable, patient-centered, and cost-effective. The proposal in its totality would replace the current patchwork financing with a voluntary federal system. It also increases private LTC financing, and streamlines the post-acute care and long term care delivery systems.

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