Family Financial Responsibility for Senior Care

Several recent items got me thinking about how American society is planning for senior care needs as Boomers age and start accessing LTPAC services. 

 ·        A New York Times article titled “The New Retirement: Near the Kids”  (hhtps:nyti.ms/2HNJ1j5) details a discussion of retirees moving away from the “sunbelts” and in to senior communities near their children. The article discusses the importance of family contacts, isolation, and nutritional needs as we age. While news articles and anecdotal stories do provide some interesting examples, they are limited in their scope and might not reflect the trends in society as a whole. 

 ·        Another article reported from the life insurance company (Northwestern Mutual) reported that 21% of Americans have no retirement savings and 33% of Boomers have less than $25,000 in savings. Those savings amounts are considerable less than the cost of a year in any senior care settings.

 ·        Another article in the Wall Street Journal was a question in their “Market Watch” section from someone asking about children’s responsibility to support aging parents. The author reports that about two dozen states have laws that have “filial” responsibility or “piety” laws, which require that families have a duty to support parents of adult children. While these have rarely been used and date back to colonial times, they are enforced on an occasional basis.

 ·        The final article (The Investment News Adviser Center) reported that two-thirds of financial fraud against the elderly was perpetrated by those closest to the victim. (ie. family, friends or trusted individual).

 All of the articles are concerning individually, as they have broad public policy issues on how to provide, support, and finance senior care needs into the future. Taken together, the potential for seniors and their families to be able to find and afford quality senior care is very concerning. The demographics of American society are very well known and should be used by public policy makers to prepare society for the coming challenges of aging Americans. Doing nothing to change the service delivery and financing for seniors has grave potential for taxpayers and families of seniors.

Written by Steve Chies, Program Manager, Long-Term Care Administration, Saint Joseph’s College