“Long-term care tops list of retirement concerns of American workers: study”

“Long-term care tops list of retirement concerns of American workers: study,” by Kimberly Bonvissuto, McKnight’s Senior Living

  

Quote:

“Paying for long-term care, declining health that requires long-term care, and outliving savings and investments are among the top retirement concerns of American workers, according to the results of a new survey. Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, which has conducted a national retirement attitudes survey of U.S. employers and workers since 1998, released the study, which focuses on the risks and realities negatively affecting workers’ retirement security. Respondents’ most frequently cited retirement fears include outliving their savings and investments (42%), declining health that requires long-term care (39%) and possible long-term care costs (34%). Three in 10 workers (32%) polled fear cognitive decline / dementia / Alzheimer’s disease.”

 

LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform:

OK, we’ve finally convinced people to worry about financial stability in old age and long-term care costs. But they still don’t plan ahead to save, invest or insure for those risks. Could it have anything to do with the unfulfillable promises government has made to them through Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid? Is the fact that Medicaid has paid the vast majority of all high-cost LTC expenditures for six decades part of the problem more than a solution? Will spending more government money to remove personal risk and responsibility from more citizens improve or worsen the situation? It’s high time to think clearly and logically instead of ideologically about these issues.