Entering a Nursing Home--Costly Implications for Medicaid and the Elderly

Medicaid is the chief support for the long-term care of the chronically impaired elderly in nursing homes. In fiscal year 1978 it financed, at a cost of $7.2 billion, 46 percent of the total national nursing home bill. A widely recognized problem with Medicaid's extensive support is that many elderly persons neither need nor prefer nursing home care.