LeadingAge Statement on the U.S. Supreme Court's Affordable Care Act Decision

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With the U.S Supreme Court's decision today, we anticipate that implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will continue moving forward.

LeadingAge members' mission is to expand the world of possibilities for aging. They help people obtain the long-term services and supports they need, when they need them, in whatever place they call home.

Our members assist families in caring for loved ones either in the community or in residential settings. LeadingAge members must find ways to cover the cost of high-quality, essential services provided on a not-for-profit basis as well as financing necessary capital improvements.

We see several ACA goals as critical to our members' mission and our field:

• Reforms in the health and long-term care delivery systems to better integrate services and promote value over volume. 
• The CLASS Act program, a better means of financing long-term services and supports than our present patchwork and unsustainable system, which gives people limited choice of services. 
• Increasing choice of service providers and settings for elders and people with disabilities. 
• A new emphasis in the elder-care workforce programs to help us meet the present and future crisis in the recruitment, education and retention of well-qualified caregivers in our field and to assist family members who provide care on an informal, unpaid basis. 
• Better wages and benefits for people who do the hard and rewarding work of providing long-term services and supports.

We will continue working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on carrying out ACA provisions that will contribute to a healthy, ethical and affordable system of long-term services and supports.

SOURCE LeadingAge