Health
Most seniors in America can’t afford nursing homes or assisted living, study finds
As many as 80% of getting old adults in America lack the monetary sources to pay for 2 years of nursing house care or 4 years of an assisted dwelling group.
That is based on a brand new examine from the Nationwide Council on Getting old (NCOA) and the LeadingAge LTSS Heart on the College of Massachusetts Boston.
Moreover, 60% of older adults — or 24 million households — wouldn’t have the funds to pay for in-home long-term care, even supposing they would favor to “age in place,” per a report from NCOA.
Researchers analyzed 2018 information from the Well being and Retirement Research, which was a joint effort by the Nationwide Institute on Getting old and the Social Safety Administration that surveyed some 20,000 U.S. adults about their web wealth.
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When the researchers first started trying on the information a number of years in the past, they have been initially shocked to see that so many older adults have been at vital threat of economic insecurity, Dr. Jane Tavares, a lead researcher on the LTSS Heart at UMass Boston, instructed Fox Information Digital.
“There’s a widespread false impression that older adults are asset-rich, however we have now present in our analysis that this isn’t typically true,” she mentioned.
As much as 80% of getting old adults in America lack the monetary sources to pay for 2 years of nursing house care or 4 years of an assisted dwelling group, a brand new examine discovered. (iStock)
Dr. Tavares additionally famous, “We count on that there’ll most likely be some worsening as soon as we study information for the time interval protecting the COVID pandemic.”
Rising prices of assisted dwelling
The nationwide common value for assisted dwelling is round $4,500 monthly, based on the 2021 Value of Care Survey from Genworth, a Virginia-based firm that helps older adults with monetary planning.
“The price of assisted dwelling can fluctuate considerably relying on the placement and stage of care wanted,” mentioned Dr. Steven Norris, a senior well being and care professional who can also be the medical director at Transitions Care in Chicago, Illinois.
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“Because the inhabitants continues to age and demand for these companies grows, it’s probably that the price will proceed to rise,” he mentioned.
With the widespread scarcity of certified caretakers, services are having to pay extra to safe the best folks, the physician defined.
“For many years, there was a lack of know-how of how costly assisted dwelling actually is.”
“Moreover, current will increase in minimal wage necessities and adjustments in additional time fee laws are rising assisted dwelling prices,” he mentioned.
The fee might vary from $3,000 in rural areas to $7,000 to $9,000 in city places, famous Bennett Kim, a senior housing professional and CEO of Las Vegas-based ZNest. It is an internet platform designed to assist older adults discover locations to stay.
Upscale assisted dwelling might be increased than $12,000 monthly.
The altering retirement mannequin has additionally contributed to gaps in financial savings for America’s senior residents, consultants say. (iStock)
“For many years, there was a lack of know-how of how costly assisted dwelling actually is,” Kim instructed Fox Information Digital.
“Some folks thought medical health insurance would cowl long-term care prices, whereas different folks optimistically believed that they’d stay a wholesome life endlessly.”
The pandemic hasn’t helped issues, because the trade noticed a surge in working bills, Kim mentioned.
Center-aged and older adults are going through a really totally different monetary panorama than the generations earlier than them did.
“Assisted dwelling firms needed to regularly increase costs simply to maintain up with their prices, however retirees didn’t see the identical development in financial savings or investments,” he added.
A number of components contribute to monetary struggles
Center-aged and older adults are actually going through a really totally different monetary panorama than the generations earlier than them did, Tavares identified.
“For starters, higher longevity comes with the next value, in addition to the next threat of going through severe power well being circumstances,” she instructed Fox Information Digital.
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Moreover, the will increase in family revenue and belongings haven’t been massive sufficient to maintain up with the rising prices of dwelling, well being care and inflation, she added.
And even when older adults do have belongings, they’re typically tied up in property and never available to assist them cowl prices, Tavares defined.
The nationwide common value for assisted dwelling is round $4,500 monthly, based on a 2021 survey. Value varies relying on location and the extent of care wanted. (iStock)
The altering retirement mannequin has additionally contributed to gaps in financial savings.
Whereas previous generations had non-public, employer-sponsored pensions that supplied predictable funds, many People now depend on 401(Okay) accounts, which depart people answerable for saving sufficient cash to cowl their retirement years, Tavares mentioned.
“With all of this mixed, few older adults have any form of vital financial savings in retirement accounts — and most cannot afford long-term care insurance coverage that will assist cowl the costly prices of assisted dwelling or nursing house care,” she defined.
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“This implies there’s a higher reliance on Social Safety revenue and social security web applications like Medicaid.”
Potential options exist — however many seniors aren’t conscious of them
There are over 2,500 public state and federal profit applications designed to spice up older adults’ financial safety — however lots of them are usually not getting used to their full extent, based on Tavares.
“Many of those applications are under-enrolled, with people not realizing they exist or not understanding about their eligibility standing and how you can apply,” she instructed Fox Information Digital.
“There’s a widespread false impression that older adults are asset-rich.”
In 2020, an estimated $30 billion of public advantages went unused annually, per the Nationwide Council on Getting old.
“These applications are an vital buffer for monetary insecurity, and it’s vital that they’re correctly utilized and maintained by state and federal governments,” Tavares mentioned.
Sixty % of older adults — 24 million households — wouldn’t have the funds to pay for in-home long-term care, the examine discovered. (iStock)
Training is seen as one other key part of enhancing seniors’ monetary stability.
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“This implies educating people about retirement financial savings and methods for figuring out when to file for Social Safety that think about their sources of retirement revenue/financial savings, well being and reasonable retirement targets,” Tavares mentioned.
“People should be eager about and getting ready for a way they may climate a possible monetary shock as they age,” she added, “and policymakers should be ready for the heavy monetary burden that may probably fall on public state and federal profit applications and start crafting options for dealing with that burden.”
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Some older adults could have the choice to faucet into their house fairness to fund their retirement, however Tavares mentioned they want sources that assist them perceive and navigate that course of.
“People should be eager about and getting ready for a way they may climate a possible monetary shock as they age.” (iStock)
There’s additionally a transparent want for policymakers to enhance long-term care protection, based on Tavares.
“With non-public long-term care insurance coverage being unaffordable for many older adults, it’s key to start contemplating mixed private and non-private initiatives that may put the price of protection inside attain and make it extra interesting to customers,” she mentioned.
Future analysis is deliberate
The LTSS Heart at UMass Boston and the Nationwide Council on Getting old plan to proceed updating these studies as new information turns into accessible.
Researchers are already engaged on analyzing the influence of the COVID pandemic on these monetary developments, Tavares mentioned.
Though Mr. Kennedy’s embrace of recovery farms may be novel, the concept stretches back almost a century. In 1935, the government opened the United States Narcotic Farm in Lexington, Ky., to research and treat addiction. Over the years, residents included Chet Baker and William S. Burroughs (who portrayed the institution in his novel, “Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict”). The program had high relapse rates and was tainted by drug experiments on human subjects. By 1975, as local treatment centers began to proliferate around the country, the program closed.
In America, therapeutic communities for addiction treatment became popular in the 1960s and ’70s. Some, like Synanon, became notorious for cultlike, abusive environments. There are now perhaps 3,000 worldwide, researchers estimate, including one that Mr. Kennedy has also praised — San Patrignano, an Italian program whose centerpiece is a highly regarded bakery, staffed by residents.
“If we do go down the road of large government-funded therapeutic communities, I’d want to see some oversight to ensure they live up to modern standards,” said Dr. Sabet, who is now president of the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions. “We should get rid of the false dichotomy, too, between these approaches and medications, since we know they can work together for some people.”
Should Mr. Kennedy be confirmed, his authority to establish healing farms would be uncertain. Building federal treatment farms in “depressed rural areas,” as he said in his documentary, presumably on public land, would hit political and legal roadblocks. Fully legalizing and taxing cannabis to pay for the farms would require congressional action.
In the concluding moments of the documentary, Mr. Kennedy invoked Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist whose views on spirituality influenced Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. Jung, he said, felt that “people who believed in God got better faster and that their recovery was more durable and enduring than people who didn’t.”
The debate about the benefits and risks of fluoride is ongoing, as RFK Jr. — incoming President Trump’s pick for HHS secretary — pushes to remove it from the U.S. water supply.
“Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders and thyroid disease,” RFK wrote in a post on X in November.
A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics on Jan. 6 found another correlation between fluoride exposure and children’s IQs.
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Study co-author Kyla Taylor, PhD, who is based in North Carolina, noted that fluoridated water has been used “for decades” to reduce dental cavities and improve oral health.
Fluoride exposure has been linked to a variety of negative health effects, yet benefits oral health. (iStock)
“However, there is concern that pregnant women and children are getting fluoride from many sources, including drinking water, water-added foods and beverages, teas, toothpaste, floss and mouthwash, and that their total fluoride exposure is too high and may affect fetal, infant and child neurodevelopment,” she told Fox News Digital.
The new research, led by scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), analyzed 74 epidemiological studies on children’s IQ and fluoride exposure.
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The studies measured fluoride in drinking water and urine across 10 countries, including Canada, China, Denmark, India, Iran, Mexico, Pakistan, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. (None were conducted in the U.S.)
The meta-analysis found a “statistically significant association” between higher fluoride exposure and lower children’s IQ scores, according to Taylor.
“[It showed] that the more fluoride a child is exposed to, the more likely that child’s IQ will be lower than if they were not exposed,” she said.
Scientists found a “statistically significant association” between higher fluoride exposure and lower children’s IQ scores. (iStock)
These results were consistent with six previous meta-analyses, all of which reported the same “statistically significant inverse associations” between fluoride exposure and children’s IQs, Taylor emphasized.
The research found that for every 1mg/L increase in urinary fluoride, there was a 1.63-point decrease in IQ.
‘Safe’ exposure levels
The World Health Organization (WHO) has established 1.5mg/L as the “upper safe limit” of fluoride in drinking water.
“There is concern that pregnant women and children are getting fluoride from many sources.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Public Health Service recommends a fluoride concentration of 0.7 mg/L in drinking water.
“There was not enough data to determine if 0.7 mg/L of fluoride exposure in drinking water affected children’s IQs,” Taylor noted.
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Higher levels of the chemical can be found in wells and community water serving nearly three million people in the U.S., the researcher noted.
She encouraged pregnant women and parents of small children to be mindful of their total fluoride intake.
Nearly three million people have access to wells and community water with fluoride levels above the levels suggested by the World Health Organization. (iStock)
“If their water is fluoridated, they may wish to replace tap water with low-fluoride bottled water, like purified water, and limit exposure from other sources, such as dental products or black tea,” she said.
“Parents can use low-fluoride bottled water to mix with powdered infant formula and limit use of fluoridated toothpaste by young children.”
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health.
While the research did not intend to address broader public health implications of water fluoridation in the U.S., Taylor suggested that the findings could help inform future research into the impact of fluoride on children’s health.
Dental health expert shares cautions
In response to this study and other previous research, Dr. Ellie Phillips, DDS, an oral health educator based in Austin, Texas, told Fox News Digital that she does not support water fluoridation.
The study researcher encouraged parents of small children to be mindful of their total fluoride intake. (iStock)
“I join those who vehemently oppose public water fluoridation, and I question why our water supplies are still fluoridated in the 21st century,” she wrote in an email.
“There are non-fluoridated cities and countries where the public enjoy high levels of oral health, which in some cases appear better than those that are fluoridated.”
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Phillips called the fluoride debate “confusing” even among dentists, as the American Dental Association (ADA) advocates for fluoride use for cavity prevention through water fluoridation, toothpaste and mouthwash — “sometimes in high concentrations.”
Fluoride is used in water, toothpaste and mouthwash to help prevent cavities. (iStock)
“[But] biologic (holistic) dentists generally encourage their patients to fear fluoride and avoid its use entirely, even if their teeth are ravaged by tooth decay,” she said.
“Topical fluoride is beneficial, while systemic consumption poses risks.”
Phillips encouraged the public to consider varying fluoride compounds, the effect of different concentrations and the “extreme difference” between applying fluoride topically and ingesting it.
“Topical fluoride is beneficial, while systemic consumption poses risks,” she cautioned.
“Individuals must take charge of their own oral health using natural and informed strategies.”
The study received funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Intramural Research Program.
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