Pamela D. Wilson, The Care Navigator, CSA, MS, BS/BA,CG

We all see the news and it’s rarely good these days; unemployment, the loss of health care benefits, bank failures, the mortgage crises and families losing their homes, companies going out of business and the daily mention of the United States bail out package. Whether or not you agree with the political side of these events, the projections regarding the need for long term care are real and will be creating the next financial crises.

According to research performed by the Urban Institute (www.urban.org), the number of older adults accessing paid home care will more than double between 2000 and 2040 increasing from 2.2 million to 5.3 million while the number of older nursing home residents will also more than double over the period, increasing from 1.2 million to 2.7 million. (1)  Medicare, Past Present and Future indicates that heath care spending is growing at 2-3 times the national debt.  Medicare spends more money than it receives in dedicated taxes and premium payments allocated each year. By 2020 Medicare will claim 1 in every 5 tax dollars and by 2050 Medicare will claim 1 of every 2 tax dollars.(2)  It doesn’t take a scholar to see that sustaining Medicare in its current form will be near impossible.

The literature mentions that eventually choices will have to be made between spending funds on health care or other government programs. It will be the choice being a good candidate for knee replacement surgery versus a candidate who could have the surgery but will not recover well because of past lifestyle choices. The health care system will have to ask, “Why waste health care dollars on a poor surgery candidate?”

So what can you do?

• Become educated about maintaining your own health to reduce unnecessary health care expenditures and improve your overall health. No new news.  You’ve heard it all before, stop smoking, exercise and eat healthy.
• Write to your legislators about the issues; become an advocate for health care
• Become involved in organizations supporting health care issues.
• Purchase long term care insurance now while you’re healthy so you can receive the care you need, how and where you choose when the time comes in order to avoid relaying on the government system in whatever forms it might be available.
• Talk to your parents about planning for long term care today so they won’t end up impoverished or need your retirement savings to pay for their care

Unless we take action today through education, advocacy and being pro-active, we will be the next crises for the United States and there won’t be enough dollars le to bail ourselves out of the mess we’ve made.

(1) Johnson, Richard et al., Meeting the Long Term Care Needs of Baby Boomers.  Discussion paper 07-04 in The Retirement Project series. www.urban.org

(2) Livingston, Kari. Study Claims Medicare Debt Will Rise $32.4 Trillion. National Center for Policy Analysis. www.ncpa.org/pub/st/st299

Copyright 2011 Pamela D. Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

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