"A year in a nursing home wipes out the income
of over 90 percent of the elderly living alone,"
said Rep. Edward Roybal, D-Los Angeles, committee
chairman.
The report contains a state-by state analysis of nursing
home costs compared with income. The results are pegged
to income, rather than income and assets.
"With annual nursing home costs averaging over
$22,000 and elderly median annual income being just
over $11,500, a host of personal catastrophes are
in the making," Roybal said in a statement accompanying
the report. "Unless concrete action is taken
quickly, all lower- and middle-income elderly and
non-elderly Americans will remain at great risk of
impoverishment due to the high and sustained cost
of long-term care." Roybal's panel planned a
hearing today to discuss the study.
Catastrophic-health legislation that has passed both
the House and Senate awaits conference committee resolution
of differences in the two bills, but neither provides
substantial additional long-term care benefits for
the nation's 32 million Medicare beneficiaries.
The report says Medicare, the government program that
provides health care for the (elderly regardless of
income, covers less than 2 percent of long-term nursing
home care. Medicaid, the government health program
for the poor, pays about 40 percent of all nursing
home care in America.
