Home Care Is Least Affordable for Seniors Who Need It Most – Medicaid

By Bailey Bryant | June 3, 2019

Seniors who need nonmedical home care the most — the oldest, sickest and often most vulnerable — are the least likely to be able to afford it. Unfortunately, labor shortages are expected to make home care services even less affordable in the years to come.

That’s according to a new study published in the June issue of Health Affairs.

Only 57% of seniors over 65 with significant disabilities could afford to pay for at least two years of moderate home care if they liquidated all their assets, while only 40% would be able to fund two years of extensive care, according to the study.

Additionally, people with higher needs typically come from lower-income backgrounds, further stressing the need to address social determinants of health.

“The bottom line is that paid home care and other types of long-term services and supports are generally not affordable for the people who need those services the most,” lead researcher Richard Johnson, who is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute’s Income and Benefits Policy Center, told Home Health Care News. “It’s just another indication that the prospect … of becoming frail at older ages poses an enormous financial risk for most older Americans.”

Researchers used 2014 data from the University of Michigan’s national health and retirement study to reach their conclusions. Specifically, they looked at 9,966 seniors 65 and older who were not living in institutional settings or on Medicaid. Continued at https://bit.ly/2Mvk0fv