Long-term care is already a huge problem in the United States, one that’s growing as the baby boom population ages, and one with big financial costs. William Brangham explores the impact this is having on middle-class Americans and how they are having to rearrange their lives. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Amna Nawaz: Long-term care is already a huge problem in the United States, one that’s growing as the baby boom population ages and one with big financial costs. William Brangham looks at the impact this is having on middle-class Americans and how they’re having to rearrange their lives. William Brangham: The numbers alone give a very stark sense of what America is facing. Between now and 2030, every single day, about 10,000 Baby Boomers will turn 65. By 2050, there will be 85 million Americans 65 and over. Nineteen million of them will be 85 or older. Already, the total cost of long-term care for the elderly is around half-a-trillion dollars every year. A new series by KFF Health News and The New York Times called “Dying Broke” looks at the financial and emotional consequences of inadequate long-term care, a circumstance that often leaves middle-class Americans in financial ruin. The series profiles people who have had to spend down their life savings to qualify for government help, and it reveals a largely broken private insurance market. Jordan Rau of KFF Health News was one of the lead reporters on this series. Jordan, thank you so much for being here. The series title, “Dying Broke,” is so sobering, as are many of the profiles of the stories that you tell. Broadly speaking, can you lay out the problem that you document here? Jordan Rau, […]
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