As baby boomers settle into or hover at the edge of retirement, they have major worries on their minds, and it’s not just about having enough money to get them through retirement. At the top of the list for Minnesotans nearing retirement age is health care, according to a recent survey commissioned by the folks at Ecumen, a Shoreview-based nonprofit operator of independent and assisted-living housing and care centers, and a provider of home health care for older adults. Indeed, if politicians are looking to connect with the concerns of the aging electorate—namely, the 1.5 million people who constitute the baby-boom generation in Minnesota—affordable health care had better be at the top of their list, too.
Health care far outdistanced financial security and other issues presented to a cross section of 564 baby boomers in the Ecumen survey, which was conducted last December and January. The survey found that for 70 percent of respondents, maintaining one’s health was a top priority, versus 57 percent who listed maintaining one’s independence, and 54 percent who listed financial security as their most pressing concern. In a country where a baby boomer turns 60 every seven seconds and health care costs continue to spiral upwards, the survey’s findings are hardly surprising.
Staying Independent
All this leads to some important public-policy questions. And the way our state addresses those could, of course, have a significant impact on our finances. “If you are a policymaker and [you] want to build roads, schools, and maintain other government services, you’re going to want to tackle this aging thing, because it’s a black hole, financially,” says Eric Schubert, a spokesman for Ecumen.
Consider this: In 1950, we had 269,279 seniors in Minnesota and in 2030, we’ll have 1.3 million seniors. If we don’t change how we pay for their care, it is projected that health care for seniors will cost the Minnesota state government $20 billion per year by 2050, up from the half a billion dollars per year we spend now.
Interestingly, the survey’s results suggest some potential solutions to the problem. For instance, an overwhelming 9 out of 10 of those surveyed want to stay in their homes throughout their retirement, and they want policymakers to find ways to allow them to do that.
Survey respondents also said they want programs that allow seniors to apply Medicaid dollars to stay-at-home services. In fact, Schubert says Minnesota has what’s called the Consumer-Directed Community Supports program, which already allows considerable flexibility in how assisted-living options are structured. The program’s goal is to allow elderly people to remain in their own homes. How many people are enrolled in this program statewide? About 150. The reason, Schubert says, is simply because older adults aren’t aware of the program’s existence.
It’s not surprising that less than a third of those surveyed (29 percent) expected to pay for their long-term care with Medicare, while 57 percent anticipate paying for it with long-term care insurance or personal savings. Seventeen percent of those surveyed were either very concerned or somewhat concerned about their ability to pay for long-term care in their twilight years. Let’s assume that those baby boomers who are very concerned about paying for health care end up depending on the state of Minnesota to cover their costs: 17 percent of 1.3 million baby boomers equals nearly 221,000 people.
So what about the idea of long-term care insurance? “The people we surveyed hate the term, ‘long-term care,’” Schubert says. “People are clearly looking for hybrid products—a care insurance product coupled with a health insurance product, or a life insurance or disability insurance product connected with a long-term care product, or a life policy, for instance, that might convert to a long-term care product. They’re clearly saying, ‘Give me something different.’”
