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U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, whose husband John spent decades pushing health care reform in Congress, was trying to make her own contribution Wednesday with a budget amendment to help improve access to long-term care.

Dingell, D-Dearborn, knew going in that her proposal — to create a reserve fund which could pay for a pilot program or other congressionally mandated effort looking at ways of addressing long-term care costs — was almost certain to be defeated, being part of the Democrats' alternative budget in the Republican-led House.

But she said she felt it was important to begin a conversation on what she hopes would be a bipartisan cause: coming up with a financially responsible way of providing long-term care to Americans who need it or will in the future.

"Too many seniors today are relying on a disconnected system of barriers that doesn't work," she said, speaking on the floor of the House Wednesday. "My hope is we can all work together on this soon in a bipartisan way."

In comments to the House Budget Committee last week, Dingell, a member of the committee, said neither Medicare nor Medicaid — the government's programs to provide health care for the older and low-income Americans, respectively — were designed to provide for costly long-term care.

She noted that demand for long-term care in the U.S. is expected to double in the next 40 years but Medicaid has strict limits on income eligibility and Medicare provides services only for limited periods of time. Private long-term care insurance, she added, is often too expensive or unavailable, leaving it to family members to take care of loved ones as best they can.

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