What Are Some Important Facts About Long Term Care?

WHAT ARE SOME IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT LONG TERM CARE?

Males who reach the age of 65 have life expectancy of additional 16.8 years. 1
Females who reach the age of 65 have life expectancy of additional 19.8 years. 1
Approximately 60 percent of individuals over age of 65 will require at least some type of Long Term Care. 2
Medicare nursing home coverage is so limited (it is mainly an assistance for short term patience recovering from hospital stays), in fact it only paid 13 percent of Long Term Care costs in 2002. 3
A government study predicts that the nursing home cost will raise 5.8 percent per year through 2010. 4
Average nursing home cost is between $60,000 to $80,000 per year and average cost for a private room is $70,000 per year. 5
Approximately 63 percent of people over 65 and 37 percent of people 64 and younger will need Long Term Care. 6
Nearly 28 percent (three in ten) adults indicate that they are "very" worried that they will not be able to pay for nursing home or home care services. Nearly 32 percent (one third) of adults say that it is just something that they have ever thought about. 7
Estimated public and private on Long Term Care exceeds $180 billion in 2002 where $37.2 billion was paid out of pocket by individuals or families 8
According to The Alzheimer's Association, about 46% of people over the age of 85 have dementia or Alzheimer's. 9
Over the next 50 years, elderly population will grow from about 12% to over 20%, which will put a burden on the tax base and availability of money for government programs and the availability of younger caregivers. 9
Overweight and obese people in the United States are increasing dramatically where obesity is a major reason for disability and poor health in the elderly. It is estimated that the effects of obesity will increase nursing home enrollments by an additional 15% to 20% by the year 2020. 9
Most healthy people in their 50s and early 60s prefer to ignore this future problem and their lack of planning will further burden public programs in the future. 9

1 Fowles, D., Greenberg, S. "A Profile of Older Americans: 2005" Administration on Aging, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2005 edition.
2 "Own Your Future", Administration on Aging, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. December 2002
3 Greene, Kelly. "Medicaid Maneuvers-Getting Uncle Sam to pay for long-term care has more drawbacks than you think," The Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2004.
4 Dykes, J.S., "The Outlook for Long-Term Care Insurance," Kiplinger's Retirement Report, April 2003.
5 Health Care and the 2004 Election: Long-Term Care 2004, Kaiser Family Foundation, June 2005
6 "Caregiving in the U.S.", National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. Washington, DC: Author, 2004.
7 "National Survey on the Public's Views About Medicaid" Kaiser Family Foundation, June 2005
8 Komisar, H., Thompson, L. "Who Pays for Long-Term Care? Fact Sheet", Long-Term Care Financing Project. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2004.
9 Statistical abstract of the United States, 2005