Baby Boomers Mistakenly Believe They Can Afford Long-Term Care, PRI’s Inlander Says

"Very few baby boomers" will be able to afford "any type of long-term care should they need it," despite their perceptions to the contrary, Charles Inlander, a consumer advocate and president of the Pennsylvania-based People's Medical Society, said Jan. 3 in his "Second Opinion" commentary on Public Radio International's "Marketplace." Inlander said that baby boomers, who "have had it easy economically" and consider themselves "better prepared financially for retirement years than previous generations," may be in for "a rude awakening" if they need long-term care services. Inlander cited an AARP report titled "The Costs of Long-Term Care: Public Perceptions Versus Reality" (Inlander, "Marketplace," PRI, 1/3). The study was based on a telephone survey of 1,800 American adults ages 45 and older conducted from July 20 to Aug. 14, 2001. According to the survey, 60% of respondents said they are "somewhat familiar" with their options for long-term care, but only 15% could estimate the cost of nursing home care within 20% of the national average cost of $4,654. Nearly one-fourth said they did not know the cost, and 51% underestimated nursing home care costs. Thirty-one percent of those polled said they had insurance that would cover the cost of a long-term stay in a nursing home. However, the Health Insurance Association of America estimates that just 6% of Americans have purchased long-term care insurance policies (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 12/12/01). Inlander called the findings "very worrisome." The "vast majority" of baby boomers "figure [long-term care insurance costs] will all be taken care of when we reach old age," he said, but with employer benefits that are "no longer very generous" for retirees, "ever-increasing" medical care costs and baby boomers' "allergic reaction" to the idea of raising taxes, it will be "almost impossible for the government to take care of all our long-term care needs." Inlander concluded that "unless baby boomers start planning for their long-term care needs now, we may turn out to be the poorest and most needy elderly citizens this country has ever had" (Inlander, "Marketplace," PRI, 1/3).