The long-term care challenge isn't just a fiscal problem, it's a test of our nation's character

COMMENTARY | January 09, 2012
 
When it comes to caring for the elderly and the disabled, fiscal austerity and moral imperatives come into direct conflict. So as the baby boomers enter their twilight years, a scholar at the Claude Pepper Foundation writes, the nation will have a stark choice between communal values or neoliberal ones.

By Larry Polivka
lpolivka2@fsu.edu

Over the next several years, our nation will have to confront some critical issues regarding the way we provide and pay for long-term care. Our response will not just affect the fate of millions of older and younger disabled persons; it will also be a defining moral moment for the country. Will we divide or unite around a commitment to helping those who have little capacity to meet their need for care on their own?

Most families at some point confront the need for long-term care (LTC) services, for older family members or younger disabled relatives. It is very difficult for families to anticipate and plan effectively for LTC needs, which are highly variable and must often be provided over a period of several years. The economic and emotional burdens associated with caregiving can be enormous, whether the care is provided directly by family members or through paid assistance in the form of personal care, homemaker services, adult day care, home health care, assisted living or nursing home care. These burdens will increase over the next few decades with the aging of the baby boomer generation.