State Has Good Model for Long-Term Health Care Appleton Post-Crescent June 28, 2009 As Congress prepares for a long-overdue debate on health care reform, one thing is clear: Every American deserves guaranteed, affordable, high-quality health care. For too long, Congress has delayed action on reforming our health care system and now that system is in crisis. As I work to pass strong reform legislation, I will also be advocating for another health care priority that should, at long last, get the attention it deserves: long-term care reform. Americans spend more than $200 billion on long-term care each year. Even though long-term care represents a large percentage of health care spending, it's too often eclipsed by other parts of the health care debate. Fortunately, though, it hasn't been neglected here in Wisconsin, where we have enacted some of the most successful long-term care reforms in the country. It's an area where Wisconsin should be a national model as we work to pass comprehensive health care reform in Congress. As chair of the Wisconsin State Senate Aging Committee for 10 years, I was proud to be a part of the successful effort to reform long-term care in Wisconsin. In the 1980s, reform advocates in Wisconsin showed tremendous vision and leadership on this issue, helping to create the Wisconsin Community Options Program, known as COP, which has evolved into Family Care. While no program is perfect, Family Care is rightly considered one of the pre-eminent long-term care programs in the country. COP and Family Care have demonstrated two important things: First, they showed that you can establish a long-term care program that is flexible and able to respond to the needs of individual consumers; second, they showed that kind of flexible program could be a cost-effective alternative to institutional care. Those programs opened up new possibilities for people with long-term care needs, like being able to receive care in their own homes and communities, instead of a nursing home. Such flexible care can vastly improve the quality of life for those who need long-term care. Under Family Care, benefits can include everything from hiring help with basic daily tasks like bathing, dressing or shopping, to challenges like shoveling snow. Of course, that's not just more flexible and consumer-friendly, it also costs less than other alternatives. As Family Care makes clear, a flexible approach to care can be much more economical than traditional care. Family Care has saved Wisconsin taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, and we need those kinds of savings as we face a growing population of long-term care consumers, who face limited care options, and are supported by a relatively shrinking population of workers and taxpayers. One independent assessment estimates that Family Care saves the state $1.2 million each month by allowing long-term care consumers to arrange for the care they need to remain independent, and out of the nursing home. How we care for those who need it most — seniors, people with disabilities and others who need long-term care — is a key part of our health care system. It's true that with the aging baby boom population, the demand for long-term care will increase. But long-term care is not just about the elderly; of the 10 million people in need of long-term care each year, 4 million are working age adults and children. In the early 1990s, there was a surge of interest in and support for expanding long-term care. I was pleased to serve as chair of the long-term care working group that sought to ensure that health reform legislation proposed by President Clinton included improvements to long-term care programs and services. Unfortunately, reform stalled and since then Congress has largely avoided the issue. Congress is finally gearing up for another attempt at reform, and we need to make sure that long-term care is not overlooked. I'm working with my colleagues to put this critical issue front and center in the current health care debate, as we try to fix our broken system and guarantee affordable, high-quality health care for all. It's time to put long-term care in the spotlight, and give Family Care, Wisconsin's model for flexible and cost-effective care, the attention it deserves.