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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long-term care | 3/5 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_care | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:30:24.445699+00:00 | kb-cron |
Life expectancy is going up in most countries, meaning more people are living longer and entering an age when they may need care. Meanwhile, birth rates are generally falling. Globally, 70 percent of all older people now live in low or middle-income countries. Countries and health care systems need to find innovative and sustainable ways to cope with the demographic shift. As reported by John Beard, director of the World Health Organization's Department of Ageing and Life Course, "With the rapid ageing of populations, finding the right model for long-term care becomes more and more urgent." The demographic shift is also being accompanied by changing social patterns, including smaller families, different residential patterns, and increased female labour force participation. These factors often contribute to an increased need for paid care. In many countries, the largest percentages of older persons needing LTC services still rely on informal home care, or services provided by unpaid caregivers (usually nonprofessional family members, friends or other volunteers). Estimates from the OECD of these figures often are in the 80 to 90 percent range; for example, in Austria, 80 percent of all older citizens. The similar figure for dependent elders in Spain is 82.2 percent. The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that about 9 million American men and women over the age of 65 needed long-term care in 2006, with the number expected to jump to 27 million by 2050. It is anticipated that most will be cared for at home; family and friends are the sole caregivers for 70 percent of the elderly. A study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that four out of every ten people who reach age 65 will enter a nursing home at some point in their lives. Roughly 10 percent of the people who enter a nursing home will stay there five years or more. Based on projections of needs in long-term care (LTC), the US 1980s demonstrations of versions of Nursing Homes Without Walls (Senator Lombardi of New York) for elders in the US were popular, but limited: On LOK, PACE, Channeling, Section 222 Homemaker, ACCESS Medicaid-Medicare, and new Social Day Care. The major argument for the new services was cost savings based upon reduction of institutionalization. The demonstrations were significant in developing and integrating personal care, transportation, homemaking/meals, nursing/medical, emotional support, help with finances, and informal caregiving. Weasart concluded that: "Increased life satisfaction appears to be relatively consistent benefit of community care" and that a "prospective budgeting model" of home and community-based long-term care (LTC) used "break-even costs" to prevent institutional care.
== Long-term care costs == A recent analysis indicates that Americans spent $219.9 billion on long-term care services for the elderly in 2012. Nursing home spending accounts for the majority of long-term care expenditures, but the proportion of home and community based care expenditures has increased over the past 25 years. The US federal-state-local government systems have supported the creation of modernized health care options, though new intergovernmental barriers continue to exist. The Medicaid and Medicare health care systems in the US are relatively young, celebrating 50 years in 2015. According to the Health Care Financing Review (Fall 2000), its history includes a 1967 expansion of to ensure primary and preventive services to Medicaid-eligible children (EPSDT), the use home and community-based Medicaid waivers (then HCBS services), Clinton administration health care demonstrations (under 1115 waiver authority), the new era of SCHIP to cover uninsured children and families, coverage for the HIV/AIDS population groups, and attention to ethnic and racial-based service delivery (e.g., beneficiaries). Later, managed care plans which used "intensive residential children's" options and "non-traditional out-patients services (school-based services, partial hospitalization, in-home treatment and case management) developed "behavioral health care plans". In 2019, the average annual cost of nursing home care in the United States was $102,200 for a private room. The average annual cost for assisted living was $48,612. Home health care, based on a 44 average week, cost $52,654 a year Genworth 2019 Cost of Care Survey]. The average cost of a nursing home for one year is more than the typical family has saved for retirement in a 401(k) or an IRA. As of 2014, 26 states have contracts with managed care organizations (MCO) to deliver long-term care for the elderly and individuals with disabilities. The states pay a monthly capitated rate per member to the MCOs that provide comprehensive care and accept the risk of managing total costs. When the percentage of elderly individuals in the population rises to nearly 14% in 2040 as predicted, a huge strain will be put on caregivers' finances as well as continuing care retirement facilities and nursing homes because demand will increase dramatically. New options for elders during the era of choice expansion (e.g., seniors helping seniors, home companions), which includes limitations on physician choices, assisted living facilities, retirement communities with disability access indicators, and new "aging in place" plans (e.g., aging in a group home, or "transfer" to a home or support services with siblings upon parents' deaths-intellectual and developmental disabilities). Politically, the 21st Century has shifted to the cost of unpaid family caregiving (valued by AARP in aging at $450 billion in 2009), and the governments in the US are being asked to "foot part of the bill or costs" of caregiving for family members in home. This movement, based in part on feminist trends in the workplace, has intersected with other hospital to home, home health care and visiting nurses, user-directed services, and even hospice care. The government's Medicaid programs is considered the primary payer of Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS), according to the American Association of Retired Persons, Public Policy Institute. New trends in family support and family caregiving also affect diverse disability population groups, including the very young children and young adults, and are expected to be high increases in Alzheimer's due to longevity past age 85.