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Volume 27, Issue 463

March 20, 2006

BRACING FOR THE TSUNAMI: BABY BOOMERS WILL NEED ASSISTANCE

A new report on frail older Americans and their caregivers concludes that the need for home- and community-based care will only increase with time. The report from the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute found that most older people (in their 80 and 90s) with disabilities who live outside nursing homes have little education and limited financial resources. Most don’t qualify for public assistance, and about three-quarters of those who receive help in their homes rely exclusively on unpaid caregivers.

But the supply of family caregivers may decline over time because of rising divorce rates, increasing childlessness, declining family sizes and rising employment rates of married women. Meanwhile, between 2000 and 2050, the size of the population aged 85 and older will soar from 4.3 million to 20.9 million.

More than one-quarter of people aged 65 and older who lived at home in 2002 said they had some type of disability that limited their capacity to perform basic personal activities or to live independently. In 2002, only 15.5 percent of fail older adults and 27.3 percent of those with severe disabilities had Medicaid coverage. Only 10.2 percent of seniors had private long-term care insurance, including only 6.8 percent of frail older adults.

On the upside, about 63 percent of frail older adults have at least one child living within ten miles who can provide unpaid care. On the downside, more than half of adult children helping their frail older parents are employed, and unpaid caregivers who take on primary responsibility for older adults average 201 hours of help per month, more than the typical full-time job.

“Long-term care is a women’s issue,” the report’s authors state. That’s because:

nearly two-thirds of older people with severe disabilities are female;
women account for abut two-thirds of all unpaid caregivers; and
daughters account for about seven out of every ten adult children who help their frail parents and about five of every six who assume primary responsibility for their personal care.

BRACING FOR THE TSUNAMI: BABY BOOMERS WILL NEED ASSISTANCE