Funding Long-Term Care: Some Risk-Spreaders Create More Risk Than They Cure

Authors

Nathalie Martin, University of New Mexico - School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2000

Abstract

The purpose of this Article is to explore two different aspects of the long-term care issue. First, what are the options for receiving longterm care, such as home-care, assisted living, CCFs or traditional nursing homes? Second, what are the methods of funding long-term care? This Article will consider the strengths and weaknesses of each option when considering how best to control the costs of long-term care. Because only two of the options, maintaining LTC insurance and entering into a contract with a CCF, attempt to control future longterm care costs through risk-spreading, the Article considers these two options in more detail than other options. Part I discusses the alternatives to traditional nursing homes. Given that over 1,600 of this country's traditional nursing homes have recently gone into bankruptcy, seniors will be more interested in options to traditional nursing homes than ever been before. Part II examines the issue, in general terms, of funding long-term costs. Part III analyzes long-term care insurance, and Part IV looks at continuing-care contracts. In the end, for people who want to avoid running out of money for long-term care before they die, long-term care insurance and CCF contracts appear to be the only options. At the moment, however, each provides far less protection against loss than one would hope.

Publication Title

Journal Contemporary Health Law and Policy

Volume

16

Issue

2

First Page

386

Last Page

355

Recommended Citation

Nathalie Martin, Funding Long-Term Care: Some Risk-Spreaders Create More Risk Than They Cure, 16 Journal Contemporary Health Law and Policy 386 (2000).
Available at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facultyscholarship/679