NAELA News August, 1999 - National Academy of Elder Law ...

NAELA News ● August 1999
Chapter Presidents
National Academy of
Elder Law Attorneys
ARIZONA
Kay Richter
Tucson, AZ
(520) 318-1301
CAROLINAS
Diana Armatage Johnston, CELA
Hendersonville, NC
(828) 693-0811
Francelle C. Millender, CELA
Columbia, SC
(803) 733-3433
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Gregory Wilcox, CELA
Berkeley, CA
(510) 665-8400
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Elizabethanne M. Angevine
Whittier, CA
(562) 464-1150
COLORADO
R. L. Steenrod, Jr.
Denver, CO
(303) 534-5100
FLORIDA
G. Mark Shalloway, CELA
West Palm Beach, FL
(561) 686-6200
KANSAS
Kristin L. McCord
Mission, KS
(913) 831-4045
ILLINOIS
Howard S. Berk
Chicago, IL
(312) 603-0800
MASSACHUSETTS
John J. Ford
Lynn, MA
(781) 599-7730
MISSOURI
Craig C. Reaves, CELA
Kansas City, MO
(816) 756-2100
NEW JERSEY
Eugene Rosner, CELA
Clark, NJ
(732) 382-6070
TEXAS
Julia E. Merkt
El Paso, TX
(915) 545-1063
WASHINGTON
Sean bleck
Seattle, WA
(206) 340-2200
Please note that this list does not include the
NAELA chapters currently in formation.
Exclusive to the NAELA
News: An Interview with
Jane Bryant Quinn
(continued from page 1)
have not yet reached any
agreement as to how we are
going to pay for them and who is
going to get the services or the
income. Until we reach that
agreement, it is going to be an
open sore.
RCM I know that there are a lot of
issues that we have to deal with.
Do you think any of these are
more pressing than the others?
Quinn Everything is pressing. The
Medicare trust fund is closer
to being in trouble than the
Social Security trust fund is,
but I don’t think I would put
one over the other. All of
these issues are important. I
don’t think I would rank them.
RCM
Let’s switch to the issue of
long-term care. I know that
the President has introduced
a proposal and I’ve read a few
of the things you’ve written
about it. What do you think
about the proposal?
Quinn I am not a big fan of his
proposal. I think it’s mainly to
help caregivers. It gives them
a tax credit. It does not help
people who do not pay taxes.
Also it doesn’t help lower
income people who are giving
care. It would only apply in
the most serious cases of
home care, and then it would
come to something like $3.00 a
day. That’s not going to help a
whole lot. The proposal honors
people who do home care
without really helping them a lot.
The budget for it is something
like $5.5 billion. At the same
time, they’re cutting a much
larger sum out of Medicare,
including Medicare home care.
It would be more sensible to
allocate this money to Medicare,
including home care, rather than
give a certain group of caregivers
RCM
$3.00 a day. It’s nice to recognize
caregivers but the tax code
isn’t there to recognize things.
Also, there’s no guarantee that a
tax credit would add to the
amount of home care available.
I would prefer to see the money
in the general program.
Do you think that the general
public realizes the shortcomings
of this proposal, or do
you think they just say, “oh,
the President’s trying to do
something about long-term
care?”
Quinn Oh, probably, the latter, which
is what’s intended. Unless, of
course they read my column
and maybe acquired a different
view.
RCM
In your writings you have
made reference to the fact that
you’ve had personal experience
with long-term care
giving. Would you be willing
to share your personal story
with us?
Quinn Not in great detail, but I will
tell you briefly. My mother-inlaw
lived with us for nine
years after she became
physically incapable of living
on her own. It was not
Alzheimer’s but it was a
progressive dementia of
another sort. We had home
care, and kept her with us until
it became too difficult. For her
last three years, she was in a
nursing home.
RCM Based on your personal experiences,
do you recommend that
Congress do something else other
than what the President’s
proposing?
Quinn Well, that’s one of the issues. We
could afford home care for my
mother-in-law. So why should I
get $1,000 on my tax return to
help me when I could afford to
pay it? We did what we did
because she was my husband’s
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