Number: RS20784
Title: Long-Term Care: What Direction for Public Policy?
Authors: Carol O'Shaughnessy, Bob Lyke, and Jim Storey, Domestic Social Policy Division 
Abstract: The need for long-term care is expected to grow substantially in the future. While need cannot be predicted with certainty, total public and private spending for long-term care for the elderly could double from 2000 to 2025, even assuming no expansion of benefits. How these added costs would be financed is unclear. Issues for Congress include: how to pay for these escalating expenses; how to apportion costs among the public and private sectors; and how to help people get the long-term care benefits they both want and can afford.
Pages: 6
Date: January 18, 2005