Changing the way the elderly live: Evidence from the home health care market in the United States

2010 ◽  
Vol 94 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 142-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Orsini
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Home Health Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
Home Health ◽  
Health Care Market ◽  
The Way

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Richard Schweid
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Activities Of Daily Living ◽  
Home Health Care ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Current System ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
Home Health ◽  
Turnover Rates

This introductory chapter provides an overview of home health care in the United States. Most Americans over sixty-five want to grow old at home, but the reality is that to do so, the majority of them will eventually need someone to help with what are called activities of daily living, those things basic to maintaining life, like eating, bathing, and using the toilet, and with the instrumental activities of daily living, such as cooking and cleaning. The millions of women employed as aides to help the elderly with these tasks in the United States are treated as menial laborers, paid minimum wage, often with no benefits, although the job they are doing is critically important to both our personal well-being and that of society as a whole. Given the low pay and stressful work, it is not surprising that home health aides have one of the highest turnover rates of any job. This book then analyzes what is wrong in the current system of providing home care to the elderly and how those deficiencies might be remedied.

Home Health Care

1985 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-304
Author(s):  
Vernon R. Loucks
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Home Health Care ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
The United States ◽  
Home Health ◽  
Industrialized Nations ◽  
Aging Populations ◽  
Special Health

Throughout the industrialized world—from the United States to Japan, from Scandinavia to Australia—the theme of cost containment dominates the discourse on health care. This issue is the offspring of successful past efforts to ensure all patients effective medical care. While many countries have groups with special health disadvantages, the great majority of people in the industrialized nations have access to modern medical care and make ready use of it. The problem now is its cost, as aging populations, increasing in number as the result of advanced techniques that are more effective in prolonging life, place considerable strains on health care budgets.

Intensive Home Health Care in the United States

1987 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Fox ◽  
Kathleen S. Andersen ◽  
A. E. Benjamin ◽  
Linda J. Dunatov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Home Health Care ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Home Health ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Lengths Of Stay ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis paper assesses the impact of mechanisms for financing intensive home health care services in the United States on their utilization. As lengths of stay have decreased in response to prospective payment methods for hospitals, demand has increased for intensive and complex services provided to patients in the home. Third-party payers, however, are willing to satisfy only some of this potential demand that their reimbursement policies have generated. It is the policies of payers rather than the safety and effectiveness of devices and procedures that are the major constraints on the expansion of intensive home health care. We describe the effects of these policies on who receives intensive home health care services, who provides them, what services are provided, how their quality is monitored, and what they cost.

“I Don’t Do It for the Money”

2021 ◽  
pp. 150-156
Author(s):  
Richard Schweid
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Home Health Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
Home Health ◽  
Unskilled Labor ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Care For The Elderly ◽  
To Receive

This chapter highlights the need for public policy to change how we value the work of home health aides (HHAs). Communities continue to relegate the work that HHAs do to the category of menial labor, when in fact it is something much more important and difficult to do well, more a profession than unskilled labor. In 2019, the number of HHAs for elderly Americans fell far short of those needed in many locales. Mean-spirited, xenophobic immigration policies may soon further reduce the numbers of people who are available to care for the elderly. Without enough people to do this work, the United States will move deeper into a second-rate nationhood. If there are not enough aides to go around, private-pay care will grow more expensive, and public long-term care at home will be reduced or eliminated for many, while wait times to receive what care is left will increase. Ultimately, people's lives will be of less quality than they might have been, and they may die sooner than necessary. The chapter then outlines a number of specific plans which have been elaborated to show how a better system of home health care might be funded in the United States.

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