Many are Unprepared for Long Term Care Needs

The Street

A large number of adults lack discussions about care plans with family or healthcare providers.

Transcript

00:00This morning on BRN, many are unprepared for their long-term care needs.

00:09Joining me now to discuss this and a lot more, Dr. Anna Montoya is with the University of

00:14Michigan Health. Dr. Montoya, so great to see you. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning.

00:20Thank you for having me.

00:21It's a pleasure. And I'm very interested in this University of Michigan study that you and the team

00:26worked on. I'm summarizing by basically saying our mature generations are maybe not

00:35set up or handling their long-term care needs properly. I want to get your reaction to the study

00:42and your feedback on that. Okay. Thank you for the question. These are results from our national

00:49poll on healthy aging that was conducted back in August of 2024. And what we know is that two

00:57thirds of older adults who have survived to the age of 65 will need long-term services at some point in

01:03their future. But it's really concerning what we found that 57% of adults 50 and older think that

01:10they probably will not need those services in the future. Moreover, about half of them do not know

01:18how to plan for long-term services. And really, some of them feel that they do not need to plan

01:25for long-term services. So, doctor, just to kind of follow up on that, for those that don't plan or

01:32don't think they need to plan, is it because maybe they don't understand what long-term care

01:37is? Or do they perhaps don't think that they're going to make it? They're just going to live until 70 or

01:4575. So, they won't, you know, they're just going to one day, their life will end. I mean, what is

01:49the, do you have a feeling for what's underneath that stat? Well, we don't know 100% what is the

01:58reason, but it definitely could be that it's this lack of awareness that they will require those

02:05services in the future. It is the fact that they may not be receiving enough information on how to

02:11plan. So, they may not know how to plan or they, again, they don't perceive it as a need. Many of

02:18these adults, 50 and older, are in what we call a sandwich generation when they're taking care of

02:25their aging parents, but they're also taking care of their younger kids who are going to college.

02:30And probably it's the last thing that they can think of is really to take care of their

02:35long-term care services for themselves for the future. Yeah. And just to kind of follow up again

02:41on that, doctor, we have an aging society. I've talked about this before on the network.

02:47Not only is America aging, the rest of the world is aging. This is a big deal because we're aging,

02:52but we're also living longer because of the modern technology and wellness and medicine that,

03:00you know, those advances, it is probably a necessity that at some point we're all going to need long-term

03:09care. Absolutely. And, you know, sometimes people do not understand why that is needed. We definitely

03:18have an aging population in our state, you know, in Michigan also, particularly we live in a state

03:27where population is even older than the average in the United States. So it's particularly important,

03:33not only for this state, but all over in the United States that we pay attention to these matters,

03:40because there's larger proportion of adults who will become 65 and older. We're talking about the

03:46baby boomer generation that are, you know, becoming older in the next few years. Yeah. And in terms of

03:55education, do you think that, you know, I think a lot of people are aware, you know, close to 65 about

04:03Medicare and Medicaid. Do you think there's maybe a misconception about what those services, what,

04:10first of all, are they available for everybody? And two, what they actually cover in terms of long-term

04:17care? Absolutely. We found in this national poll that there was, there were several misconceptions.

04:24Uh, number one, you know, that over 50% of adults, 50 and older thought that Medicare was going to pay

04:34for those services. And we know that that program does not cover that Medicare covers for short stay

04:40rehabilitation stays, usually after a hospitalization. Uh, but when we are talking about long-term stay,

04:47when the patient actually requires to live in the nursing home for a longer period of time,

04:52Medicare really does not pay for that. And we also found misconceptions about Medicaid services.

05:00So, uh, we know that Medicaid is a major, uh, payer in the long-term care sector. It covers about,

05:07uh, 60% of, um, you know, at least in my state, 60% of, uh, Michigan's, uh, nursing home residents,

05:14long-term stays. However, we found that only a third of all of adults, 50 and older thought that they,

05:21these services were going to be covered by Medicaid. And it's important to, uh, know that

05:26Medicaid, uh, covers for, uh, those individuals who have low income and limited assets and not for

05:32everyone either. Right. So it's, so there's, sounds like there's a lot of educational need in terms of

05:38what those programs cover, who they're available for. Are there some lessons here for the, let's talk

05:46about the industry first. Are there some lessons from the study, uh, from the long-term care industry?

05:51I'm going to say like insurance companies, nursing homes, long-term care providers, do they need to

05:57do a better job of educating the public? Absolutely. I mean, we have found, you know, between the

06:04misconceptions, uh, uh, on who's paying for that between knowing who really, um, is thinking about

06:11planning and who can actually, who has actually taken steps to plan for long-term care services.

06:17We understand that really not a lot of people are thinking about that. Not a lot of people are

06:22acting on that. So there's definitely a lot of room, uh, for, uh, public education, you know, for adults,

06:29uh, 50 and older, um, to, you know, take proactive steps to plan for, uh, long-term care services.

06:36There's a big responsibility on us as healthcare providers as well to, uh, share, uh, some of those,

06:43um, some of that information, some of those resources, help, uh, patients, uh, you know,

06:49um, with their advanced, uh, directives or durable power journey. Uh, there's room for policymakers

06:56really to help increase the awareness, uh, of the importance really of, uh, long-term care planning

07:02and, you know, highlight those steps that, uh, people can do, identify some, uh, practical ways,

07:08you know, to, that they can, uh, start, uh, um, financing their long-term care services for the,

07:13uh, future. And, um, I will also say that, you know, there's these organizations that are,

07:20you know, at the national level, you know, area agencies of, uh, on aging that not a lot of people

07:26necessarily know about that could provide some of those, uh, resources, uh, to our adults.

07:32Yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot there, there. This study, I think really sheds some light on

07:38the need for education. And look, I think the reality is, is for the most part, a lot of us are

07:44going to need, especially in the later parts of our life, we're going to need support. You got to

07:49figure that out. It's part of the planning. I, you know, once you get to retirement, next, you got to

07:54figure out your healthcare situation. Dr. Montoya, I think we're going to have a, continue to have

07:59conversations around this for the foreseeable future. It's great to meet you. Thanks for

08:03joining us. And we look forward to having you back on the program again, very soon.

08:07Thank you very much.

08:09And don't forget to subscribe to our daily newsletter, the morning pulse for all

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08:17all this great BRN content. And we're backing in tomorrow for another edition of BRN until then,

08:23I'm Jeff Snyder. Stay safe, keep on saving and don't forget roll with the changes.

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