Maryland Will Face Senior Citizen Service Affordability Gap in 2008

January 02 - 2008

CATONSVILLE, Maryland -- “Among the many challenges that more and more senior citizens living in Maryland are likely to face during 2008 and beyond is the already broad -- and still widening -- gap in affordable housing, health and social services available to them, according to Dr. John Parrish, executive director of the Catonsville-based Erickson Foundation. This gap is driven in part by senior citizens’ limited income levels and by other related considerations, such as the increasing cost of mortgages or rent, food, utilities, and of fuel for transportation, just to mention a few.

“There’s a large, growing segment of older adults in Maryland who aren’t poor enough to qualify for Medicaid and other public benefits, yet who cannot afford to pay out of their own pockets for options such as institutionally-provided long-term care at an  assisted living or skilled nursing facility,” said Dr. Parrish. “Unfortunately, more and more cannot afford the cost of private long-term care insurance, and have either no or limited Medigap insurance coverage provided through traditional pensions or other employer-supported benefits for many health care expenditures not fully covered by Medicare that arise, and not infrequently balloon, later in life.”

He said more and more people who are retired need access to home- and community-based services that provide high quality, more affordable alternatives to placement in long-term care institutions that generate high costs for themselves and their fellow taxpayers.  “There is also an increasing need to enhance the coordination of professionally-provided services, and the further preparation and integration of informal caregivers into our formal health and social services delivery systems,” he said.

Dr. Parrish said the percentage of older persons living with chronic illness and/or disability has declined slightly over recent years.  This encouraging trend, he said, is tempered by the fact that the absolute number of older persons living with such illness and/or disability is on the incline, nonetheless, given the ongoing surge in the number of elders.

“With entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security already stretched, and with only more tension on the way, we urgently need to invest in higher quality, lower cost home- and community-based services that are increasingly coordinated on behalf of all Marylanders as they age,” he said.

About The Erickson Foundation:

John and Nancy Erickson founded the Erickson Foundation in 1998 as a private, operating foundation. The Foundation’s Research and Development program is focused primarily on projects designed to contribute to current best practices in active aging and aging with choices. In the long term, the Foundation’s research may improve wellness programs and health care for older adults everywhere. The Foundation’s strategic priorities are:

Understanding the strengths, capacities and preferences, as well as needs, of adults who seek an active lifestyle:

• Encouraging healthy choice-making by older adults and their families;
• Preserving, possibly enhancing, the wellness of mature adults;
• Delaying onset and/or exacerbation of disease and disability among older adults —perhaps enabling them to extend their health span.

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