Nearly 10 million adult children are caring for older parents in America. The unpaid care they provide is estimated to be worth $375 billion dollars per year in a report by Indiana University.

Caregivers clearly take on their heroic role out of love and duty, but for many, cost is also a big part of the equation. A lot of caregivers believe that caring for aging parents themselves is more affordable than professional senior care. After all, the logic goes, assisted living communities and nursing homes are quite expensive, so it must be cheaper to do it yourself. But this is often a miscalculation. There are many clouded costs to family caregiving that should be considered before committing to becoming the full-time caregiver for an older loved one. Being aware of these costs can also help non-caregivers appreciate the sacrifice caregivers make, and the profound importance of their role.

Here are the five hidden costs of caregiving:

1. Lost Wages

Family caregivers frequently have to leave their jobs, reduce their hours, or retire early. According to a poll of caregivers by Gallup, the majority of family caregivers report that their role has negatively impacted their career. Furthermore, the MetLife study mentioned above found that the average caregiver’s lost wages are $143,000.

2. Decreased Employability

Caregivers who leave the workforce for months or years often find that it’s difficult to get another job when their time as a caregiver ends. This challenge is particularly marked because high unemployment has created an extremely competitive labor market

3. Increased Health Care Costs

Caregiving is physically and mentally taxing. Gallup researchers found that caregivers have both worse physical and emotional health than non-caregivers. What’s more, a study by the Center on Aging found that more than 1 in 10 caregivers say that the role has caused their own health to decline. This translates into increased healthcare costs for family caregivers, particularly those who have lost their own health insurance because they left their job to become caregivers.

4. Lost Savings and Retirement

Out of pocket expenditures by caregivers can really add up. A study by the National Alliance for Caregiving and Evercare found that a stunning 47% of working caregivers reported having used up all or most of their savings. Naturally, caregivers who have left the workforce altogether will have an even more difficult time maintaining their savings and retirement funds. Leaving the workforce can also reduce your social security benefit.

5. Reduced Productivity

The costs of caregiving are not solely on the caregiver. The American economy itself is also impacted. MetLife found that American businesses lose an estimated $34 billion each year due to employees’ need to care for aging loved ones.

Where Do the Hidden Costs Originate?

One reason that caregiving is so costly is that, according to MetLife, caregivers typically underestimate the amount time they will be providing care. We might imagine ourselves providing care a few hours per week for a couple of months, but end up providing care a few hours per day for a couple of years. Leaving the workforce for two months may be tolerable, but leaving the workforce for a couple years can be financially decimating.

A Way Forward?

The immediate burden of caregiving may be obvious, but the long term costs are now beginning to be understood as well. How can these costs be mitigated? A report by AARP’s Public Policy Institute made several recommendations:

• Implement family-friendly workplace policies such as flextime and working from home.
• Preserve and expand protections of the Family Medical Leave Act.
• Expand funding for the National Family Caregiver program.
• Provide a tax credit for caregiving.
• Pay family caregivers through Medicaid or other publicly funded programs.

There are no easy answers to this conundrum, but we believe it’s important have a conversation about the vital and honorable role of family caregivers, and what can be done to make their lives easier.

How has caregiving impacted your own family? Were their costs that you did not anticipate? What should we do to help family caregivers? We welcome your comments below.

Credit : Place For Mom

With the average lifespan increasing, more adult children are caring for aging parents who have depleted their savings. According to the Genworth 2014 Cost of Care Survey (U.S. Only), the average annual cost of a one bedroom apartment in an assisted living community is $42,000 per year. A private room in a nursing home averages more than $87,600 per year. Paying for care requires understanding options through research and careful planning.

LONG-TERM CARE INSURANCE

Long-term care insurance (LTCI) in the U.S. and Canada helps pay for costs not covered by private medical insurance. This type of plan can help minimize the financial impact of long-term health care needs. In general, long-term care insurance will cover the cost of home care, assisted living, adult daycare, respite care, hospice care, nursing home and Alzheimer’s care facilities. Most companies will not insure people with preexisting conditions; it’s easier to buy LTCI before health issues arise.

LIFE INSURANCE POLICY CONVERSIONS: LONG TERM CARE BENEFIT PLAN

Instead of allowing a life insurance policy to lapse or be surrendered; the owner can convert their policy into a Long Term Care Benefit Plan. Any type of in-force life insurance policy (Term, Universal, Whole and Group) with a death benefit of $50,000-$1,000,000 can be quickly and easily converted into aLong Term Care Benefit Plan that will start covering immediate costs of any form of Senior Care the policy owner chooses.

It is a unique financial option for seniors because it pays for immediate care needs, all health conditions are accepted, there are no wait periods, no care limitations, no costs or obligations to apply, no requirement to be terminally ill, and there are no premium payments. Policy owners have the legal right to convert an in-force life insurance policy to enroll in the benefit plan, and are able to immediately direct tax-exempt payments to cover their senior housing and long term care costs.

GOVERNMENT FUNDED LONG TERM CARE

Many U.S. citizens are surprised to learn that Medicare is not universal health care for people over 65 and does not cover long-term care costs for seniors.

REVERSE MORTGAGES

A reverse mortgage, also called a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) – is a type of loan for homeowners over the age of 62 that turns equity saved in a home into cash. When someone secures a reverse mortgage, they are then able to use the money from their home equity while also living in and retaining ownership of their home. There are no restrictions on how you can use the money from a reverse mortgage. Traditionally, the disadvantages of a reverse mortgage are the relatively high closing costs, but if you need money for any purpose, and are concerned about not being able to make the payments on a normal loan, then a reverse mortgage may be right for you.

Credit : Place For Mom

Those were Mr. Z’s actual words. He’s not a drama queen, so I took him seriously. He was talking about the convalescent home where he’d been staying since being discharged from a hospital three weeks earlier for diverticulitis (a common inflammation of the colon, which can cause bad belly pain). At age 85, he’d otherwise been doing fairly well. Despite pretty bad congestive heart failure, he’d been proud of his ability to get out of bed on his own and take his four-wheeled walker for a jaunt through the mall.

But a week in the hospital left him feeling weak, so the hospital doctor had offered Mr. Z. a choice: He could return home and have a physical therapist visit him there — or he could go to skilled nursing facility for “short-term rehabilitation.”

Mr. Z. opted for the skilled nursing facility. He figured that he’d get more physical therapy there and would be able to build up his strength faster.

Somehow, though, things hadn’t gone well. Instead of getting better, he’d gotten worse. He wasn’t sure he was getting the right medications. He couldn’t get the attention of a nurse when he needed it. He couldn’t sleep, because his roommate had the TV on all night. And the physical therapist, he said, was “terrible.”

After a few weeks, Mr. Z. felt scared. He asked to go home, but the facility staff told him he wasn’t strong enough. He started to worry that he was going to die there.

The challenge: When someone’s getting worse instead of better

Rehabilitation, or “rehab,” is the process of gaining back one’s strength and abilities. Older people often need rehab after the ordeal of a hospital stay, and Medicare will usually pay for it. It’s possible to get rehab at home, through a home health service. But many people opt for an inpatient rehab facility (often located within a skilled nursing facility, typically a nursing home), which can provide more intensive physical therapy and more medical monitoring overall.

Unfortunately, although many wonderful rehab facilities exist, others end up feeling like a clichéd “terrible nursing home experience.” This isn’t surprising, given that rehab often takes place in nursing homes, where quality can range from excellent to spotty.

Mr. Z. didn’t know what to do. It didn’t help that like many older people, he had no family in the area to visit him and help monitor his care. (Mr. Z. had been paying to live in a board-and-care home for the past several years.) And no one had told me, his primary-care physician (PCP), either that he’d been hospitalized or that he’d continued on to rehab. Most hospitals aren’t good at communicating with PCPs; Mr. Z. hadn’t thought to tell me himself.

The solution: Sometimes, it’s the comfort of home

Fortunately, Mr. Z. insisted that the rehab facility arrange transportation to his regularly scheduled follow-up visit with me. He looked terrible: pale, thin, and unhappy.

We got him out of the rehab facility that very day. Although Mr. Z. was much weaker than his usual self, he was still able to get around with his walker. The manager of his board-and-care, bless her heart, was willing to take him back. We arranged for a nurse, physical therapist, and occupational therapist to start seeing Mr. Z at home.

“But they say I’m not well enough to go home,” Mr. Z. said, worriedly.

Well, that’s what staff at facilities say sometimes. It’s understandable that they’d be concerned about a frail older person who’s getting worse instead of better. But often there are more options for high-quality rehab care at home than people realize, such as the variety of professionals we enlisted to come and visit Mr. Z. And sometimes it’s the comfort of home that provides an added measure of strength to boost a recovery.

Why? Nobody really knows for sure. But have you ever had the experience of feeling better physically when you’re also feeling good mentally and emotionally? Most of us do. Perhaps the varied stresses of a new environment were just too much for Mr. Z. Or perhaps his particular facility or physical therapy program truly were lousy.

In the end, I didn’t spend too much time trying to figure out why inpatient rehab wasn’t working for Mr. Z. It works for many. But in this case, he wasn’t improving ““ even though he wasn’t so sick that he absolutely couldn’t leave. It made good sense to give the comfort of home a try.

Mr. Z came back to see me a week later. And I was relieved to see that indeed, he was finally starting to look, and feel, better.

My prescription for caregivers:

Know that inpatient rehab doesn’t always work better than home rehab. It can be a very individual thing.

If you or your loved one feels like things are getting worse instead of better in a rehab facility, trust that intuition. Get help. A second opinion from a doctor outside the facility can be a good start, especially if it’s a doctor who already knows you or your loved one.

Be persistent about asking what kinds of help would be needed to make home rehab successful (such as visits from a physical therapist, a nurse, and so on).

Make sure you keep the primary care doctor in the loop about changes in treatment, progress, and medications.

Don’t expect the hospital to take care of this important step.

Has inpatient rehab worked in your experience? Or have you found that you or loved one did better once you got home?

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