Care Options: Levels of LTC - Informal Caregivers
Although professional help is available for individuals need prolonged treatment, the vast majority of LTC providers are not paid practitioners. These individuals are referred to as informal caregivers, and are typically family members, friends or other volunteers who help the elderly and disabled. According to statistics, the typical informal caregiver is a daughter, age 46. At least half of these individuals are employed full time and may also have children to take care of, and many have rearranged their work schedule, work fewer hours or take unpaid leave to care for loved ones.
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Primary Elements of Informal Care
Due to the rising costs of Long-Term Care, these unpaid informal practitioners have rapidly become the most widely-relied-upon care providers. If they were paid, the national cost would be between $45 and $94 billion a year (ASPE and AoA, 1998). Partly because of changes in Medicare and Medicaid, most of the elderly and disabled are forced to rely solely on informal caregivers.
Logic suggests that as a patient conditions worsen, that those individuals would shift to increasingly more formal care. The opposite is the case. Almost all of the elderly who are close to needing a nursing home are living with family members and are receiving only about 60 hours of informal care a week. Paid assistance for most is only available a few hours a week. Financial supplement from LTC insurance is one of the few means by which families can increase the level of care these individuals receive.
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Benefits of Informal Care
It is very important for the disabled and elderly to have an informal support system, even if they are in a nursing home. Even long-distance caregiving is possible, with family members managing care from out of state. 7% of older people with a close group of family caregivers live in nursing homes, compared with 50% of elderly people with long-term care needs who lack a family network. (National Academy on Aging, 1997).
The person who provides the most assistance to the incapacitated loved one is referred to as the “primary” informal caregiver. This caregiver usually coordinates additional help from others, unpaid and paid. Around 75% of informal primary caregivers are women (ASPE and AoA, 1998). Many are spouses. Unfortunately, the more disabled the person in need of care, the more likely it is that the spouse is the primary caregiver. This can be very difficult, as he or she often has their own health concerns.
A recent study estimates these people lose about $660,000 in wage wealth over their lifetime because of work sacrifices. And estimates of productivity losses to businesses because of time off for caregiving range from $11 billion to $29 billion yearly. The average amount of time informal caregivers provide assistance is 4.5 years but 20% will provide care for 5 years or longer. As much as relatives may wish to bear the full burden of a family's care on their own, eventually both energy and finances will burn out. LTC insurance provides assistance for both of these scenarios, as it provides not only the financial support necessary to sustain outside care, but also the emotional peace-of-mind in knowing that your family's health is guaranteed for as long as you may need.
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