Pooling Resources Best Choice For Future Long-Term Care, Op-Ed States

Main Category: Seniors / Aging
Also Included In: Caregivers / Homecare
Article Date: 22 Jan 2007 - 20:00 PDT

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Splitting costs for long-term care among several elderly individuals by sharing an apartment and a health aide may be the solution to the impending financial shortfall of the baby-boom generation, psychologist Ira Rosofsky writes in a New York Times opinion piece. Forcing elderly into nursing homes -- the only long-term care option covered by Medicaid -- "grossly violates" the "accepted gold standard" that health care should provide services in the least restrictive manner, according to Rosofsky. Rosofsky continues, "We are faced with a public health system that resists innovation, but the sheer size" of the baby-boom generation "may force the issue." Rosofsky writes, "Financial shortfalls may divert money into more cost-effective, less restrictive, more consumer-controlled environments for the elderly who need help," adding, "that would be a stroke of good luck for all of us (Rosofsky, New York Times, 1/17).

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