This week, we welcomed Prof. Judith Feder, Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University. Prof. Feder discussed the financing of long term care and the need for public funding of long term care. She began by clarifying that not only older adults require long term care, and that an adult’s risk of needing long term care increases with age. Prof. Feder explained that long term care in nursing homes and assisted living facilities is too expensive for individuals to save for themselves. She also described a private long term care insurance market that has failed to grow for a variety of reasons, including cost and uncertainty. Because Medicare covers long term care only in very specific instances, Prof. Feder explained, Medicaid pays for a large proportion of the nation’s long term care.  The Affordable Care Act contained a long term care insurance provision, the CLASS Act, though the Obama administration has decided against establishing the program. Prof. Feder works to promote federal funding of long term care, as the burden is costly and ever-increasing as the Baby Boomer generation ages.