11-26-1984 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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WHO PAYS FOR LONG-TERM CARE? Public assistance, chiefly M3dlcald, now covers 57 per- cent of nursing home expenditures The remainder I, paid for privately through patients' incomes from Social Security, pension payments. Investment Income, savings. liquidation of assets, and the like. Private Insurance for the full range of long-term care services Is not available and Medicare does not cover long-term, custodial nurs- ing home care This reliance on the public sector for nursing home care expenditures can be traced to the introduction of the federal and state funded Medicaid program In 1965 Prior to the introduction of Medicaid, the nursing home Indus- try was relatively small. and the cost of nursing home care was mostly borne privately I:•• y Two Important changes accompanied the Introduction of the Medicaid program The nursing home Industry bur- geoned. and public responsibility for care of the elderly increased greatly, often succeeding private responsibility for the many Institutionalized elderly who simply outllveo their own resources Nearly half the elderly that Medicaid supports were not Initially poor. but have become a pub- lic responsibility after using up their own resources on the cost of long-term care, costs that now average $20.000 per year. The help that many older people need to remain in their own homes —homemaker and cjlore services. shopping assistance, help with personal care, and sitters —are no - covered by Medicare or Insurance and thus must be purchasPd privately unl"s an older person Is eligible for public social services FIGURE 5 Historical Growth in Minnesota Medicaid Expenditures 1970-1983 Nursing home f- a consumes Ivro Thuds of Mmnrsofa s Me,- a budget 900 Z I 800 7 701; cn — cc r Q J 2 J — O r ) 500 1�;•, — tL — 0 r d(' J cn 400 a, Z (D 'RX) J t_ :10C V 100 > �Zf 1470 1W 1911, 1973 1414 191') 1977 IW8 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 Source Wnnftots Depertnwnt of Pub"c woit&re