“Long-term care resident Medicare beneficiaries spend $22,384 out of pocket for healthcare annually: study”

Long-term care resident Medicare beneficiaries spend $22,384 out of pocket for healthcare annually: study,” by Lois A. Bowers, McKnight’s Senior Living

“Residents of long-term care facilities who have traditional Medicare coverage spent an average of $22,384 out of pocket for healthcare in 2016, the latest data available, according to a new analysis of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data by the Kaiser Family Foundation. In the study, ‘long-term care facility’ was defined to include assisted living, personal care facilities and retirement homes …Eighty-eight percent of the out-of-pocket healthcare costs for long-term care residents, or $19,632, went toward the cost of long-term care services, the authors said. Long-term care facility residents who did not have Medicaid spent an average of $41,782 out of pocket to cover their healthcare costs, according to the analysis. Out-of-pocket spending on long-term care facility services also was higher among traditional Medicare beneficiaries with certain types of chronic conditions — in particular, Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia ($27,308) and Parkinson’s disease ($28,165), the researchers found.”

 

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

What’s interesting in these new data is not how much people pay for long-term care, but how little … unless they lack Medicaid. What’s missing, as usual, is any comprehension of how easy Medicaid eligibility for long-term care is to obtain, even for people with high incomes and assets. For details and consequences, read our study How to Fix Long-Term Care Financing (2017).