Findings; purpose

(a) Findings Congress finds the following: (1) More than half of Americans entering old age today will have a long-term services and supports (in this section referred to as LTSS) need, averaging $298,000 costs per person for about 2 years of serious self-care disability, and more than half will be out-of-pocket, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (in this section referred to as HHS). (2) The population age 85 or older (which is a proxy for the number of elders needing LTSS) will double between 2022 and 2035, and nearly triple by 2050. This aging will outpace the number of working-age people, including family members, who can help seniors financially or with unpaid care. (3) Research has shown that most U.S. seniors could only afford less than a year of nursing home care, assisted living care, or extensive home care using their financial resources. Some can get by using unpaid (family) care, but most rely on a combination of paid and unpaid care. (4) More than 1 in 5 middle-income seniors will end up impoverished, Medicaid eligible, and mostly using Medicaid to cover their LTSS costs. (5) Millions of older Americans—1 in 5—will need LTSS for more than 5 years, with a price tag that would impoverish nearly all American households if they faced that need. HHS projections show that older adults who need LTSS for more than 5 years incur nearly half of all LTSS expenses and 60 percent of Medicaid’s LTSS spending. (6) Only 1 in 10 American adults (11 percent) have any private coverage for LTSS expenses, leaving almost all middle-class American families to exhaust their nest-eggs and become impoverished before qualifying for Medicaid. (7) The Nation urgently needs to create methods for ordinary Americans to be able to take responsibility to plan for the risk of a substantial period of disability during retirement years. (8) Given that Americans move and work across State lines so frequently, State-based LTSS plans encounter difficult administrative issues. Therefore, a solution to address LTSS needs for seniors must be anchored in a Federal insurance plan. Additionally, since the time just after onset of disability is more predictable and manageable, a Federal insurance plan should cover the risk of especially long periods of long-term care, leaving the early period of need to personal responsibility. (9) Those methods must also responsibly support the workforce providing supports and services. (b) Purpose The purpose of this Act is to enable most Americans to make plans that protect themselves and their families, to enable disabled older adults to support themselves in their communities during periods of serious disability, to support the workforce providing direct services to elders living with disabilities, and to reduce what is now necessary reliance on Medicaid.