ABSTRACT
Long-term care for elderly people has emerged as an important issue facing American society. As the elderly population grows both in number and share of the total population, their need for assistance to continue living in their homes and the community will increase. Elderly people are increasingly aware of and concerned about their financial exposure to the catastrophic costs of long-term care. Recent surveys of elderly people living in the community found that most elderly respondents did not think they would be able to pay for long-term nursing home or home health care services. The chapter describes financial risks for elderly persons and their spouses in the context of current, long-term-care financing mechanisms. It identifies the risk of impoverishment due to either institutional or home-based long-term-care costs and calculates the amount of time in weeks it takes for Massachusetts elderly persons and their spouses to spend down resources to Medicaid income eligibility, indicating impoverishment.
