Long-Term Care: Get the Facts and Plan Ahead

Did you know that most Americans who are 65 and older will require long-term care services at some point in their lives?

Long-term care is defined as the services and supports needed when one can no longer perform the basic activities of daily living without personal assistance. These basic activities are defined as the “6 ADL’s,” or “activities of daily living,” which include bathing, dressing, eating, toileting, transferring, and continence.

In 2001, Congress declared November long-term care awareness month to highlight a potentially serious concern, as the baby boomer generation was aging alongside healthcare costs increasing.

The need for long-term care assistance can have serious impacts on your assets as well as family dynamics if you do not plan accordingly. For these reasons, planning for potential long-term care needs is an invaluable component of your overall financial plan.

Do you know how likely you are to need long term care?
Do you know the cost of long-term care options in your state?
Do you know if it’s most cost effective for your financial plan to buy long term care insurance?

These are important questions to start exploring, regardless of your age.

The statistics and resources below can help you get started on your long-term care planning or give you deeper knowledge about your options. If you are interested in learning more about long-term care, have questions about your existing coverage or policies, or would like an objective opinion about whether a policy might be right for you, contact your financial advisor or our Advanced Strategies Professionals at (703) 506-8200.

Articles

Statistics

Usage of LTC

70%: Percentage of people turning age 65 who will need some type of long-term care services in their lifetimes
20%: Percentage of people 65 and over who will need long term care for longer than 5 years
14%: Percentage of people all ages who will need long-term care for longer than five years
41%: Percentage of people requiring significant long-term care help (assistance with two or more activities of daily living) who are under age 65
10.7%: Percentage of Americans over age 65 who have Alzheimer’s dementia
33%: Percentage of Americans over age 85 who have Alzheimer’s dementia
64%: Percentage of Americans with Alzheimer’s dementia who are women
6.5M: Number of Americans are living with Alzheimer’s; by 2060, this number is projected to be nearly 13.8M
Every 65 seconds, someone in America develops Alzheimer’s. By mid-century, someone in America will develop the disease every 33 seconds
1 in 3 seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another dementia, and Alzheimer’s or another dementia kills more than breast and prostate cancer combined
145%: Percentage increase of deaths from Alzheimer’s between 2000 and 2017; in comparison, deaths from heart disease have increased 9%

Caregiving

41.8 million: The number of Americans who provided unpaid care to an adult 50 or over in 2020
16.3 million: The number of caregivers for someone with Alzheimer’s or other dementia
18 billion: The estimated number of hours that these caregivers provided for someone with Alzheimer’s or other dementia in 2022
$339.5 billion: The estimated cost of the 18 billion hours that these caregivers provided in 2019
89%: Percentage of care provided to older adults that is delivered by friends or family members
66%: The percentage of caregivers who are female
49: Age of the typical caregiver, a female, who spends 20 hours every week caring for her mother
71%: Approximate percentage of those providing home care are women – most often a daughter
30%: Approximate percentage of caregivers who are “sandwich generation” caregivers, providing care to children as well as older adults
54%: The percentage of caregivers who are age 50 or older
60 %: The percentage of caregivers in the U.S. that hold full-time jobs

State and Federal Funding

62%: Percentage of nursing home residents whose care is provided by Medicaid
$148,620: Maximum amount of assets that a healthy spouse can retain for the other spouse to be eligible for long-term care benefits provided by Medicaid, 2019 (Actual amounts vary by state)
$3,17 5.50: Maximum amount of monthly income that a non-applicant healthy spouse can receive for the other spouse to be eligible for long-term care benefits provided by Medicaid, 2018
100: Days of care in a skilled nursing facility (“rehab”) covered in full or in part by Medicare following a qualifying hospital stay

Paying for LTC

$361.6 billion: Estimated long-term care total expenditures in the U.S.
$34 billion: What Alzheimer’s and other dementias will cost the nation in 2023
$1 trillion: Projected cost of Alzheimer’s and other dementias by 2050
$108,405: Median annual nursing-home cost, private room, 2021
$156,585: Average annual nursing-home cost, private room, Washington D.C. Area, 2021
16%: Percentage of long-term care costs that were paid out of pocket in 2020, totaling over $64 billion
9%: Percentage of long-term care costs that were paid by private insurance, totaling over $36.9 billion

LTC Insurance

$1.87 billion: Annual claims on long-term care insurance policies, 2000
$13.25 billion: Annual claims on long-term care insurance policies, 2022, paid to over 345,000 claimants
99%: Percentage of new long-term care policies that cover both nursing home and in-home care
5 million: Number of individuals with long-term care insurance coverage, 2000
$1.98 trillion: Maximum potential benefit of all long-term care policies in force today
2/3: Ratio of long-term care insurance benefits paid in 2011 that were paid to women

Helpful Websites

October 31, 2018