aarp-appeal
I am not a big AARP fan and will not pay dues to them. In recent years, I think some of their priorities have become muddled. Personally, I think they are out of touch with reality.
Clients have forwarded an email to me from AARP, appealing for firsthand stories from people who’ve been helped by what sounds like Medicaid-funded home health care. (Their email is not particularly well-worded. I’ve attached it.) Evidently, the Texas Legislature is currently developing the budget for 2010 and 2011 and has NOT included full funding for all of Texas’ long term care programs that provide services in the community. This is not surprising, is it?
Obviously, I am all in favor of getting care to the needy. However, expecting Texas to fully fund this type of home health care is a bit “pie-in-the-sky” and unrealistic.
Even if Texas fell into a windfall of money, it is questionable whether fully funding Medicaid home health care is a smart thing to do. Extending Medicaid to keep people in their homes might cause a “woodwork” effect: families that currently provide care for free might come out of the woodwork to get an already drained Medicaid to pay for it.
This leads into a bigger discussion. Most of AARP’s members are not on Medicaid, since Medicaid is a program for the indigent. It is my understanding that only 10% or fewer Americans who are age, health, and financially appropriate, have purchased LTC. This same cohort are AARP’s members. Many people currently on Medicaid, receiving government paid care, started out as middle-class AARP dues payers! Many of these people failed to buy long-term care insurance when it was offered, when they could afford it, when they were insurable.
Why didn’t they buy LTC insurance when they could? This is a source of constant bewilderment to me, and definitely material for a different blog entry.
In a more perfect world, AARP would spend its time and energy lobbying for tax-deductibility of LTC premiums.
