Aging boomers will strain families, state
There will be fewer people to care for the aged, and tax-supported nursing home costs will bust budgets.
By WARREN WOLFE, Star Tribune Last update: August 21, 2010 - 11:08 PM
Excerpt:
Lynn and Steve Halverson saved taxpayers about $175 yesterday -- the cost of a nursing home room -- and they'll do it again today as they start their third year of caring for Lynn's 80-year-old mother in their Apple Valley home.
"It's what you do -- you take care of family," said Steve Halverson, who was laid off as a Schwan's manager the same month that an increasingly frail Joan Anderson moved to their house from Eau Claire, Wis.
"We get by, but some days it's not easy," he said. "It's about caring -- loving, I guess you'd say.''
Across Minnesota about 650,000 caregivers -- one in five adults -- are deeply involved with the joys and frustrations of helping aging relatives. Many help with chores, arrange doctor visits, shop for groceries or simply check in by phone every day. But for others, the care is far more intense and intimate -- feeding, bathing, dressing, monitoring chronic diseases and answering a million repeated questions.
The need for that sort of help -- whether from paid staff or families -- is about to explode. About 680,000 Minnesotans are 65 and older now. That number will soar to 950,000 in a decade, then to 1.3 million by 2030, when baby boomers start turning 85.
It's an amazing success story in longevity, but it's tempered by a worrying problem: There are far fewer young people behind them to provide care -- or finance it -- as this "silver tsunami" gains force. One measure, the age dependency ratio, shows that compared to people of working age, the proportion of seniors will almost double over the next 20 years -- from 21 per 100 workers to 39.
That will be offset slightly by a drop in the ratio of children to working-age people -- but caring for children is cheaper than caring for the frail aged.
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