This article from USA Today discusses the great need for a health-care reform proposal that will pay for and deliver long-term care to the frail elderly and disabled. 

As she aged, Natalie suffered from an unusual brain disease that causes temporary amnesia, as well as a series of small strokes. She rarely needed a doctor’s care and would live with her chronic illnesses for many years, but she could not take care of herself. Like 10 million other Americans, Natalie needed assistance to maintain her best possible quality of life - help getting in and out of bed, dressing and going to the bathroom.

That care is tremendously expensive - a nursing home stay costs an average of about $75,000 per year, and home health aides cost $20 per hour. So it was no surprise that months before she died, Natalie ran out of money and went on Medicaid. While this government program was created to provide health care for poor mothers and their children, it has become the nation’s biggest payer of long-term supports and services for those with disabilities and the frail elderly.

Natalie spent her last months in a nursing home, impoverished, and sharing a tiny room with a stranger.

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