The Scan Foundation has released a policy brief titled Long-Term Care in Health Reform: Policy Options to Improve Both (pdf) that presents four distinct policy options for including long-term care support and services in health care reform.

The report comes on the heels of a SCAN foundation poll released in early July showing that nearly 80 percent of Americans would be more likely to support a health care reform package that includes improved coverage for long-term care services.

The four policy options addressed in the brief include:

• Expanding support for home- and community-based services
• Improving coordination of medical and long-term care services for people who rely on both Medicaid and Medicare
• Improving coordination of medical and long-term care for Medicare enrollees with chronic conditions
• Establishing a public insurance program for long-term care that would “offer protection to participants of all ages and incomes.”

As key components of the first recommendation, they cite, among other things, a revision of eligibility criteria to put home- and community-based services on an equal footing with nursing home care, and also increased investment in workforce development, including “support for training for direct-care workers and training and support for family caregivers.”

In the report’s introduction, the authors argue that long-term care belongs in health reform because “The well-being and financial security of families depend not only on access to affordable medical services, but also on access to affordable, reliable long-term care — the daily assistance and supports that many individuals need because of serious medical conditions or disabilities.”

More broadly, they claim that improving the long-term care system will help America to use its health care resources more efficiently and effectively, since inadequate long-term care can and does lead to “worsening health conditions, unnecessary acute medical events such as hospitalizations, and greater demands on medical services.”

The report cites several examples of recent legislation that line up with its recommendations, including the CLASS Act, the Community Choice Act, the Empowered at Home Act, and the Retooling the Health Care Workforce for an Aging America Act.