The “blessings of greater longevity are bringing profound new social challenges” for U.S. residents, such as issues related to long-term care, Leon Kass, chair of the President’s Council on Bioethics and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. The number of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease likely will triple by 2050, a problem compounded by a “shortage of caregivers” and a “cultural refusal to honor the need for care,” Kass writes. U.S. residents prefer “to place our hopes programs that promote healthier aging and in scientific research seeking remedies for incapacitating diseases,” rather than offer “communal support to the millions of Americans … who give demanding daily care to aged parents or spouses,” he writes. According to Kass, efforts to address “the crisis in long-term care will be difficult and costly,” and the “roles the federal and state governments should play” remain undetermined. He adds that the U.S. “should certainly examine how current government policies — such as Medicare reimbursement schemes — fail to support the most needed kinds of care” (Kass, Washington Post, 9/29).

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