Health Reform and Long Term Services and Supports
Each week the Texas Voice for Health Reform blog will feature a guest blogger from our network of partners. This week’s guest blogger is Belinda Carlton, Public Policy Specialist, Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities. She can be reached at Belinda.Carlton@tcdd.state.tx.us
There are presently 10 million Americans in need of long term services and supports and this number is expected to increase to almost 15 million by 2020, according to the Alliance for Retired Americans. While approximately 45 million Americans do not have medical insurance, more than 200 million adult Americans lack any insurance protection against the cost of Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS).
There are two primary health care bills being considered in the Senate and three in the House of Representatives. The Senate Finance Committee approved a health care bill on Tuesday, Oct. 13th. Senate Democratic leaders will now have to merge that bill with another bill which passed the Senate HELP Committee in July. Meanwhile, the House is working to merge three bills passed by House Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor committees into one bill to take to the full House.
None of the minimum benefit packages in the bills include long-term services and supports. Only the bill passed by Senate Finance Tuesday includes a comprehensive approach to long-term services. In the bill are the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, the Community First Choice Option, the Home and Community Balancing Incentives Act and Coordinated Health Care Office (CHCO).
For more information:
Detailed information about the benefits of these reforms
CLASS Act Briefing – On October 20, the Kaiser Family Foundation will host a briefing to examine this major proposal to change the way that the U.S. pays for long-term care. The briefing, “The Sleeper in Health Reform: Long-term Care and the CLASS Act,” will be posted on www.kff.org on the same day.
