Long-Term Care Costs Emerge as a Top Issue for Older Americans
The results show what election candidates courting voters over 50 should talk about, researchers say.
U.S. residents ages 50 and older may be starting to worry more about the cost of long-term care than about the cost of acute health care or health insurance.
Dr. John Ayanian and other University of Michigan researchers raise that possibility in a new research letter, published behind a paywall on the American Medical Association’s JAMA website, which summarizes the results of a recent survey of 3,626 older adults.
When the survey team asked participants whether they were very worried about certain health-related concerns, the “cost of home care, assisted living, nursing home care” ranked first: 56.3% of the survey participants said they were very worried about that issue.
Here are the “very worried” levels for five other health-related concerns:
- Cost of acute medical care: 56.2%
- Cost of prescription medications: 54.3%
- Financial scams and fraud: 52.8%
- Cost of health insurance and Medicare: 52.1%
- Access to quality home care, assisted living, or nursing home care: 38.1%
Ayanian and his colleagues said they conducted the survey to understand which health-related concerns might have the most relevance to the 2024 elections.
“To engage older voters, candidates for president and Congress should prioritize communicating their plans for controlling health care costs,” the researchers conclude.
What it means: The Biden administration has emphasized the need to improve the quality of long-term care services by increasing staffing levels at nursing homes.
The new University of Michigan survey results suggest that older clients and potential clients may be starting to think more about what long-term care planners have been saying all along: paying for care of any kind can be difficult.
The survey: The new research letter is drawn from a wave of the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging that was conducted in February and March.
The survey team reached participants online and over the telephone. Participants ranged in age from 50 to 101.
About half of the participants had an annual household income over $60,000.
Roughly 17% of the participants described themselves as liberal, 47% as moderate and 36% as conservative.
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