A record number of Americans are set to reach age 65 this year, which has put more of a spotlight on the ballooning costs and the increasing desires for older Americans to age in place in their current homes.
The issue received attention earlier this week on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, a major network news broadcast that averaged nearly 6.5 million viewers during its 2023-2024 season, according to AdWeek.
As part of the broadcast’s ongoing series to highlight costs of living in an era of historically high inflation, reporter Christine Romans began the segment by highlighting an older couple. In 2018, the husband, Chuck Zimmer, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. His wife, Sharon, walked away from her job a year before turning 65 to care for him.
“Everything that we worked hard for is going back into his care,” Sharon Zimmer said.
The result was dwindling savings and a financial burden that has become increasingly common for Americans who have to make a choice between various and often cost-heavy options to care for loved ones.
The consequences, the report said, could have an impact on the upcoming general election. Wisconsin, a key battleground state that both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are heavily campaigning in, has roughly 580,000 unpaid family caregivers who spend more than $7,000 a year out of pocket to cover the associated costs with caring for older relatives.
This total is more than $10,000 if the loved one is afflicted with dementia, and it can soar to more than $240,000 over the final seven years of a patient’s life.
“If your loved one is diagnosed [at a] younger [age], they’re losing their retirement,” said Kelsey Flock, a dementia care specialist at the Aging & Disability Resource Center in La Crosse County, Wisconsin. “They’re losing their income [and] maybe losing the primary caregiver’s health insurance.”
Medicare covers medications for these people, but not congregate or in-home care, according to the report. In the case of the Zimmers, they spend about $1,440 per month for a private health aide who visits for three hours a day, three days a week. The costs have led them to downsize into an apartment in an effort to save more money.
“When the money’s gone, and he passes away, and I did the best I could — and I kept him home — I’m OK being broke,“ Sharon Zimmer said. “I’m OK [knowing] the state’s going to take care of you now, because I did the best I could.”
Recently, Democratic presidential nominee Harris proposed an expansion of Medicare to include in-home care coverage. The Trump campaign has said that eliminating taxes on Social Security would help lower costs for seniors and any caregivers they may need.
