Disability

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services The Disabled Elderly and Their Use of Long-Term Care

According to the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey, elderly persons with severe disabilities (defined as needing assistance with one or more activities of daily living) had out-of-pocket health care expenses nearly four times greater than persons without disabilities. Approximately 9% of the elderly population was categorized as having a severe disability.

    U.S. Department of Health and Human Services   Disability, Health Insurance Coverage, and Utilization of Acute Health Services in the United States Executive Summary

Since 1984, a number of welfare reform proposals intended to lessen dependence on AFDC have been enacted. The current Administration is continuing to address welfare dependency. The purpose of this paper is to update results on the disability status of women of AFDC based on the 1990 SIPP with welfare reform in mind.

Landmark legislation has the power to change people's lives for many years to come. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law on July 26, 1990, is landmark legislation for Americans with disabilities. The four goals of the ADA — equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency — are broad in scope and bold in nature.

This booklet of long-term care and disability research has been prepared by the Division of Long-Term Care and Aging Policy, Office of Family, Community and Long-Term Care Policy, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. It summarizes the results of the Division's research projects from 1989 through the present and highlights future plans.

The 1982 and 1984 National Long-Term Care Surveys (NLTCS) are household surveys of functionally impaired Medicare beneficiaries age 65+. The 1989 NTLCS is a resurveying of this population.

The repeal of many provisions of the 1988 Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act was due to subjective impressions about the usefulness to many elderly persons of the services covered by the law and to the omission of long-term care services.

This paper was requested as part of the National Academy of Sciences, Committee on National Statistics Panel to Evaluate the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). SIPP is sponsored by the Bureau of the Census and has been an ongoing longitudinal survey of the civilian non-institutionalized population since 1983.

This study was designed to provide comprehensive information about future long-term care needs in the U.S. Using data from the U.S. Decennial Census of Population and Housing, National Long-Term Care Survey and National Nursing Home Survey, the study developed detailed projections of the need for long-term care among the elderly in the years 2000, 2020 and 2040.