McKnight’s Home Care Features Article by Careforth Executive Chairman Paul Kusserow and Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush

The American healthcare system is at an inflection point. Careforth Executive Chairman Paul Kusserow and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush co-authored a piece for McKnight’s Home Care explaining why.

Drawing on Kusserow’s decades of leading home-based care organizations and Bush’s experience overseeing one of the nation’s largest Medicaid programs, the two make the case for a care model centered on the home, the family, and the caregiver. This model produces better outcomes at lower cost and meets people where they most want to be.

“At $5.3 trillion annually, the United States healthcare economy is among the largest industries in the world, yet the United States continues to produce some of the worst outcomes in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Change is no longer optional; it is both urgent and inevitable. 

Given the rapid aging of the American population, there will not be enough caregivers to take care of a growing population who will require care — namely, the burgeoning elderly and the chronically ill populations. Presently there is a severe physician and nurse shortage that is only projected to grow worse over the next ten years. Regardless, if the US pulled out all stops on schooling and clinician immigration, it would still not satisfy the evolving needs of our aging population. 

The collateral damage from these workforce shortages is the rapid growth of uncompensated care. Today, roughly 63 million uncompensated caregivers donate over $600 billion of free care, often without guidance or support. The burden is also taking a significant toll on these 63 million caregivers. Family caregivers are twice as likely to develop chronic illness themselves and add further costs to the system. The stress is real.”  

Read the full article in McKnight’s Home Care here.