Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 3 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
By D. FRENCH SLAUGHTER JR.
Member of Congress
Seventh District of Virginia
As more and more people reach old age, and live longer in old age, the demand for long-term h^pjth care — and the need to find ways to pay for it — will continue to grow. Public awareness of the need for coverage against the potentially huge expense of long-term care is on the rise and will continue to increase dramatically, with good cause.
By the year 2000, an estimated 35 million Americans, or 12 percent of our population, will be age 65 or older, and the life expectancy of those who are 65 years old will rise to age 81 for men and age 86 for women. As a result, the nursing home population is likely to double over the next 12 years to 2.2 million.
Despite these warning figures, however, comprehensive long-term care insurance is in neither great supply nor great demand in our country. Although that is gradually changing, there is much the federal government can do to spur both the demand and the supply sides of this equation. I believe this is imperative because it is extremely doubtful that the federal government can solve the problem of financing long-term care without appealing to a substantial degree to the private sector.
One way the federal government can help is to offer group long-term care insurance on a voluntary basis to some of its 2.5 million workers. I introduced legislation (H.R. 5167) last year to do precisely that, and I have re-introduced the same bill in the House of Representaives this week.
Under the terms of this legislation, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) would select, through a competitive bidding proc
92.7%