The Long-Term Care Confusion

"Medicare offers no help for the high costs of dementia caregiving."

That is the subtitle of the article, How Dementia Can Drain A Family's Life Savings, published Sunday in The Mercury News. And it points out one of the major areas of consumer confusion about health care services. Medicare covers "medically necessary" costs, such as hospitalization, surgery, chemotherapy, transplants, medications, pacemakers, and other interventions; but it is Medicaid that provides coverage of long-term services and supports (LTSS).

The trajectory for estimated spending in long-term care is a big question. OPEN MINDS estimates spending on LTSS totaled $348 . . .