By Steven Syre
Marc Cohen, co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, will lead a group of 14 experts focusing on LTSS financing.
Marc Cohen, co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, has been named co-chair of a study panel to help states design state-based social insurance programs for long-term services and supports (LTSS).
The study panel was organized by the National Academy of Social Insurance as part of a new project entitled, “Designing State-based Social Insurance Programs for Paid Leave, Affordable Child Care and Long-Term Services and Supports.”
The National Academy of Social Insurance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization created to increase public understanding of how social insurance contributes to economic security. Social insurance encompasses broad-based systems that help workers and their families pool risks to avoid loss of income due to retirement, death, disability or unemployment, and to ensure access to health care.
Some states are in the process of developing social insurance programs to meet the need for paid leave, affordable child care and LTSS. The study panel is designed to inform those debates by researching options for funding and administering these programs.
Cohen, a professor of gerontology at UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School, will lead a group of 14 experts focusing on LTSS financing. Another group of 13 experts will examine paid leave and affordable child care policies.
About half of all people turning age 65 will need significant assistance with activities of daily living to remain independent as they get older.
“Most people don’t have the financial resources or private insurance to meet the expense for this kind of basic care, and many eventually turn to Medicaid,” says Cohen. “For states wishing to implement public insurance approaches to address this financial and social challenge, critical work on program design and funding options is crucial.”