Who's going to look after Mom and Dad?
Ted Nesi
Issue date: 3/7/07 Section: Commentary
How are we going to pay to take care of Mom and Dad when they're old and sick?
I realize that right now, when our parents are spending tens of thousands of dollars a year to put us through college, the idea of us supporting them seems a long, long way off. But it's not as far as it seems.
People are living longer and longer - a good thing when we keep our health. But as too many of us have learned first-hand, diseases like Alzheimer's can handicap elderly victims for a decade or more, requiring constant care from spouses, live-in nurses, or nursing home staffers.
This painfully drawn-out process - President Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis, calls it "the long goodbye" - places a huge emotional strain on sick seniors' families. It often forces spouses, themselves advanced in age, to shoulder the immense task of round-the-clock care for a husband or wife in decline.
But equally crippling can be the financial toll such an illness takes on families ill-equipped to pay for years of care. This is compounded by ignorance; according to an AARP study, few Americans realize the high cost of long-term care, and most mistakenly assume it's paid for by Medicare. (It's not.)
Thus, as The New York Times reported late last year, more than 15 million baby boomer children are depleting their life savings taking care of their parents - everything from food and rent to nurses' salaries and medical devices.
"There is a myth out there that families abandon their frail elders," Dr. Robert L. Kane, a geriatrician at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, told The Times. "Instead, across the income spectrum, children are sacrificing to care for their parents to the limit of their means and sometimes beyond."
The newspaper's rundown of yearly costs is both sobering and staggering: $35,000 for assisted living; $74,000 for a nursing home or home health aide; $2,000 for various hygiene supplies; plus, for those living far away, travel expenses to return home and check up on things.
I realize that right now, when our parents are spending tens of thousands of dollars a year to put us through college, the idea of us supporting them seems a long, long way off. But it's not as far as it seems.
People are living longer and longer - a good thing when we keep our health. But as too many of us have learned first-hand, diseases like Alzheimer's can handicap elderly victims for a decade or more, requiring constant care from spouses, live-in nurses, or nursing home staffers.
This painfully drawn-out process - President Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis, calls it "the long goodbye" - places a huge emotional strain on sick seniors' families. It often forces spouses, themselves advanced in age, to shoulder the immense task of round-the-clock care for a husband or wife in decline.
But equally crippling can be the financial toll such an illness takes on families ill-equipped to pay for years of care. This is compounded by ignorance; according to an AARP study, few Americans realize the high cost of long-term care, and most mistakenly assume it's paid for by Medicare. (It's not.)
Thus, as The New York Times reported late last year, more than 15 million baby boomer children are depleting their life savings taking care of their parents - everything from food and rent to nurses' salaries and medical devices.
"There is a myth out there that families abandon their frail elders," Dr. Robert L. Kane, a geriatrician at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, told The Times. "Instead, across the income spectrum, children are sacrificing to care for their parents to the limit of their means and sometimes beyond."
The newspaper's rundown of yearly costs is both sobering and staggering: $35,000 for assisted living; $74,000 for a nursing home or home health aide; $2,000 for various hygiene supplies; plus, for those living far away, travel expenses to return home and check up on things.
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