The tsunami is coming - analysts support Long Term Care Awareness Week

November 16 to 22 is Long Term Care Awareness Week.

"Awareness is a mild word," says Cameron Truesdell, CEO of LTC Financial Partners LLC. "What they're really saying is look out, Americans, as you age you're risking financial disaster, and Uncle Sam isn't going to bail you out. When we combine the paid-service costs with the hidden costs, we're looking at a total impact of well over a trillion dollars per year. The government doesn't want to pick up that tab. That's the reason for Long Term Care Awareness Week, to make people aware so they can plan properly."

"Congress does not relish another big bailout," Truesdell continues, "But they see another tsunami coming." That's the message Truesdell got from the September 25 introduction of House Resolution 431, which addresses long term care issues:

• According to the Government Accountability Office, "spending on long term care services solely for the elderly is projected to grow 2.5 times and could grow to $379 billion in 2050."
• Yet the Department of Commerce has reported that "savings as a percentage of after-tax income declined from approximately 8 percent in 1992 to zero since 2005." So who has the cash to foot the bill?
• The impact of the growing need for care is far greater than the projected costs for paid services. Hidden costs are draining American productivity because "an estimated 34,000,000 persons age 18 or older provide unpaid care to another adult in any given month, averaging 21 hours per week, with an estimated value of $350,000,000,000 in 2006." Multiply that by the 2.5 growth factor and we get a projected $875 billion drain in 2050.