The intention is eventually to merge the three types, which makes
sense given that neither the characteristics of the residents nor the
actual care they get differs very much.
Incidentally, only a portion of
the hospital beds providing long-term care will be transferred to
LTCI; the rest, perhaps some 400,000, will continue to be covered
by health insurance.Thus, the widely announced savings to be
made from preventing “social admissions” to hospitals should be
much less than anticipated.