Long-Term Care Facts

• An estimated 12 million people in the United States require long-term careCare given to someone who can no longer perform activities of daily living.. This is expected to climbe to 27 million people in need of long-term care by 2050.¹

• Nearly half of those requiring care are under 65 years of age, including 5.3 million working age adults. ²

• Women are disproportionately over-represented in the lower income brackets and under-represented in the higher income brackets even though women constitute 51 percent of the California workforce. ³

• Americans are living longer. In 2001, the life expectancy was 77.2 years, compared to 75.5 just ten years earlier. The number of California residents age 85 and older — those who are most likely to need extended care at home or in nursing homes — is likely to more than double by the year 2030, when the bulk of baby boomers will come of advanced age.³

• In 2005, about 1.5 million Californians used long-term care services. That number is expected to skyrocket as 6.5 million Californians will be age 65 and older by 2025. Nearly a million of those will be 85 and older, and many will need long-term care. But nursing homes may not be the default standard for care; many frail elderly will be cared for at home. ³

• Of the approximately 1.5 million Californians served by long-term care in 2005, 34 percent received care through home health agencies, 42 percent were evenly split between nursing homes and personal careHelp with bathing, grooming, getting from a chair to a bed and other personal assistance. services, and 12 percent lived in some form of residential care. ³

Sources:

1. "Long-Term Care by the Numbers." Center for American Progress, 11 Feb. 2008. 

2. "Medicaid Facts." Kaiser Family Foundation, March 2001.

3. California Department of Finance, Current Population Survey Report, March 2007.