Improving Care Through Public Policy

Published: | 7:47 pm | Posted in: Alzheimer's Disease: Cure & Care

Without the development of a disease-modifying biomedical therapy, the number of people aged 65 years and older with Alzheimer’s dementia may nearly triple, from 5.5 million to a projected 13.8 million, by 2050 (Alzheimer’s Association, 2017). It is imperative that society be able to care for them. The practices featured throughout this supplement are just […]

Alzheimer’s Association Dementia Care Practice Recommendations

Published: | 7:45 pm | Posted in: Alzheimer's Disease: Cure & Care

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disease and the most common cause of dementia. Dementia is a syndrome—a group of symptoms—that has a number of causes. The characteristic symptoms include difficulties with memory, language, problem solving, and other cognitive skills that affect a person’s ability to perform everyday activities. According to the Alzheimer’s Association 2017 Alzheimer’s […]

It’s Time For The Health Care System To Reckon With The Human Costs Of Climate Change

Published: | 7:17 pm | Posted in: Aging in Postmodern Society

This year, an estimated five million people worldwide will die from climate change. On its own, this statistic would seem unbelievable, even absurd, to most. However, if one considers even a fraction of the direct and indirect consequences of a hotter planet—air pollution, reduced food production, the spread of diarrheal diseases—it becomes apparent that climate […]

Long-term Care Providers and Services Users in the United States, 2015–2016

Published: | 7:46 pm | Posted in: Assisted Living

This report presents the most current national results from the National Study of Long-Term Care Providers (NSLTCP) conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to describe providers and services users in five major sectors of paid, regulated long-term care services in the United States. This report provides information on the supply, organizational characteristics, […]

Effects of long‐term care setting on spousal health outcomes

Published: | 8:55 pm | Posted in: Home & Community Based Services (In Home Care)

Over the past three decades, there has been a large expansion in noninstitutional long‐term care (LTC) use, and public financing of long‐term care services has been shifting away from nursing homes toward home and community‐based services (HCBS). Medicaid, the primary payer for LTC for elderly people, spent 46% of its total LTC dollars on HCBS […]

The Financial Burden Of Paid Home Care On Older Adults: Oldest And Sickest Are Least Likely To Have Enough Income

Published: | 9:32 pm | Posted in: Long-Term Care

Paid home care can significantly improve the lives of older adults with disabilities and their families, but recipients often incur substantial out-of-pocket spending. We simulated the financial burden of paid home care for a nationally representative sample of non-Medicaid community-dwelling adults ages sixty-five and older. We found that 74 percent could fund at least two years […]

Financing Long-Term Services And Supports: Options Reflect Trade-Offs For Older Americans And Federal Spending

Published: | 4:09 pm | Posted in: Long-Term Care

About half of older Americans will need a high level of assistance with routine activities for a prolonged period of time. This help is commonly referred to as long-term services and supports (LTSS). Under current policies, these individuals will fund roughly half of their paid care out of pocket. Partly as a result of high […]

Retirement Prospects for the Millennials: What is the Early Prognosis?

Published: | 3:37 pm | Posted in: Social Security

Various policy developments and long-term economic, social, and demographic trends raise worrisome questions about the financial security of future retirees. An erosion in employer-sponsored defined benefit pension coverage and the increase in Social Security’s full retirement age could shrink future benefits. Stagnating employment and earnings for men could threaten future retirement security, because retirement benefits […]

Will the Financial Fragility of Retirees Increase?

Published: | 9:33 pm | Posted in: Retirement Security

The elderly have long been seen as financially fragile, meaning that they may be ill-equipped to absorb a financial shock. The key reason is that, once retired, they have little ability to increase their income compared to working households. Going forward, retirees will get less of their income from Social Security and traditional pensions and […]

Why Are So Many Households Unable to Cover a $400 Unexpected Expense?

Published: | 8:40 pm | Posted in: Poverty

Despite a strong economic recovery, about 40 percent of households in 2017 still said they would have trouble paying for a $400 unexpected expense. When households are operating under such a tight budget, building a nest egg for retirement can be challenging. This brief uses data from two Federal Reserve surveys – the Survey of […]

Trends in Retirement Security by Race/Ethnicity

Published: | 5:35 pm | Posted in: Minority Aging, Welfare, Inequality, and Poverty

Retirement security has declined in the wake of the global financial crisis and ensuing recession. Despite an extended period of recovery, half of households ages 30-59 are at risk of inadequate retirement income compared to 44 percent in 2007. The questions addressed in this brief are how the percentage at risk varies by race/ethnicity in […]

Media and Mental Illness in a Post-Truth Era

Published: | 9:00 pm | Posted in: Mental Health

It has been argued convincingly that the public’s primary source of information about mental illness is the media: news, entertainment, and the echo chamber of social media. These depictions cue, frame, and otherwise guide our interpretive frameworks in both obvious and subtle ways. Visual media may be especially compelling and impactful in guiding social awareness, […]

Will Fewer Children Boost Demand for Formal Caregiving?

Published: | 7:28 pm | Posted in: Health Care Policy and Reform

Today, 25 percent of all caregivers of elderly are adult children.  However, while the parents of the Baby Boom generation had three children per household on average, the Boomers themselves only have two.  This project uses the Health and Retirement Study to assess how the number of children a person has affects the demand for formal long-term […]

Assessment of 3-dimensional wisdom in schizophrenia: Associations with neuropsychological functions and physical and mental health

Published: | 5:44 pm | Posted in: Mental Health

Recent decades have seen growing empirical research in wisdom as a complex, trait-based psychological characteristic. Wisdom has been shown to possess individual and societal benefits through associations with health and well-being, but it has not yet been evaluated in people with schizophrenia (PwS). In the current study, we administered a widely used, validated 3-dimensional wisdom […]

The Affordable Care Act and the Faltering Revolution in Behavioral Health Care

Published: | 3:20 pm | Posted in: Mental Health

Often described in such terms as a “revolution” and a “game-changer” for the behavioral health sector in the United States, the Affordable Care Act has helped to enhance coverage for mental health and substance use disorders while encouraging service system innovations at the organizational level. However, tens of millions of Americans still lack health insurance, […]

Competition in Health Insurance: A comprehensive study of U.S. markets

Published: | 3:04 pm | Posted in: Health Care Policy and Reform

This is the 17th edition of the American Medical Association’s “Competition in health insurance: A comprehensive study of U.S. markets.” This report presents new data on the degree of competition in health insurance markets across the country, It is intended to help researchers, policymakers, and federal and state regulators identify markets where consolidation among health […]

State Policies And Enrollees’ Experiences In Medicaid: Evidence From A New National Survey

Published: | 9:20 pm | Posted in: Medicaid

Medicaid provides health insurance to more than seventy million Americans, yet there has been little systematic analysis of what factors influence enrollees’ satisfaction with and access to care. Using a nationally representative survey of more than 270,000 Medicaid enrollees in 2014–15, we examined the consumer perspective on care in Medicaid. Average satisfaction ratings were 7.9 […]

Flint: An American Failure

Published: | 9:25 pm | Posted in: Neoliberalism

The story of Flint—the Michigan city in which people were harmed by drinking water that contained lead and lethal bacteria—is a warning to all struggling US communities that confront disinvestment, declining population, excessive financial focus, incompetent leadership, nontransparent government, and racism. Flint is also a tale of a persevering community, good doctors and scientists, and […]