•  
  •  
 

Abstract

This article seeks to explore what lessons can be learned from how Medicaid end-of-life health care services are provided to the poor post-Olmstead, and how these lessons can be applied to middle class and upper middle class boomers. The article equally seeks to address how such lessons can be integrated into a meaningful dialogue with retiring boomers in a fashion that encourages discussion and decisions regarding end-of-life health care, as opposed to leaving such tough calls for surviving adult children.

To this end, Part II of this article begins by examining the hurdles seniors face in accessing HCBS after the defunding of the Medigap at-home recovery option in 2010, taking into account the difficulties involved in planning for long-term care that are caused by significant cost variances depending on the community in which the care is provided. This section further explores the impact of informal care provided by family members on the cost and effectiveness of long-term care performed in the home.

Part III provides a summary of the historical background of long-term care in the United States and explores the genesis and perpetuation of the bias toward providing end-of-life care in an institutional setting, despite the high costs of nursing home care, leading up to the integrated care mandate handed down by the Supreme Court in Olmstead. In Part IV, the varying degrees to which states have implemented the Olmstead mandate are examined to provide an empirical analysis of the cost-savings and reduction in nursing home admission rates that can be realized through effective and widespread implementation of HCBS programs. Spending on long-term care in states with underdeveloped HCBS programs is compared to expenditures in states offering comprehensive programs to determine the overall effect of increasing access to HCBS.

Included in

Elder Law Commons

Share

COinS