It is said the two things that are certain in life are death and taxes. But as Americans grow older and live longer, the need for caregiving will be another certainty.
As baby boomers begin to retire, long-term care is becoming an increasingly urgent issue for them and others. In fact, 68% of middle-income boomers are providing care for a parent, while 17% are providing care for their spouses/partners or parents-in-law, according to a study by Bankers Life Center for a Secure Retirement.
The report, “A Growing Urgency: Retirement Care Realities for Middle-Income Boomers,” surveyed 1,500 middle-income baby boomers about their long-term caregiving expectations and plans, noting that two-thirds of them said they know someone who has required long-term care.
The study showed that a majority of boomers (92%) who expect to be caregivers are willing to make lifestyle sacrifices such as reducing expenses (66%), traveling less (41%) or moving to a new home, and nearly half (46%) indicate they would work less or stop working altogether, according to the study.
What’s interesting is that while there is a growing awareness among boomers that long-term care needs will be inevitable at some point in their lives, only four in 10 (45%) believe they will need it; that’s up from one-third (36%) in 2013, according to the report.
Lauren Locker, the founder of Locker Financial Services in Little Falls, N.J., said not enough people know they will need it. “I think everyone is going to need help—because for one, we are living longer and we are also living more mobile because we are getting our body parts replaced and there is a lot of medication we can take to keep us going longer,” she said.
Locker also pointed out that there is cognitive decline the older we get, so whatever the situation is, people will need help.
The study further showed that caregivers are more prepared than non-caregivers when it comes to managing their lives. It said two-thirds (66%) have had detailed conversations on how they wish to receive long-term care, and over half (55%) have had detailed conversations about how to pay for it.
Boomers want to be taken care of in their homes. More than two-thirds (65%) prefer to be in their current home as is, or with some modifications, the report said. Nineteen percent chose an independent living community, 9% said they would like it to be in a different home they own or would purchase, and only 2% said they want to be cared for in a nursing home.
Locker said that, for some people, care at home might not be the right thing. “You have to manage that situation. You have to find the right people, you have to like the people and you have to pay the people,” she said. “It’s a situation.”