WaPo: Maine (and soon to be dozens of other states) already suffering from understaffed elder care and lack of young workers

Sho_Nuff82 · Aug 15, 2019

Welcome to our Japan-lite future, America. I hope Susan Collins is furrowing her brow somewhere at the house LePage built.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...ecafc6-bec1-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html

The disconnect between Maine's aging population and its need for young workers to care for that population is expected to be mirrored in states throughout the country over the coming decade, demographic experts say. And that's especially true in states with populations with fewer immigrants, who are disproportionately represented in many occupations serving the elderly, statistics show.

Last year, Maine crossed a crucial aging milestone: A fifth of its population is older than 65, which meets the definition of "super-aged," according to the World Bank.

By 2026, Maine will be joined by more than 15 other states, according to Fitch Ratings, including Vermont and New Hampshire, Maine's neighbors in the Northeast; Montana; Delaware; West Virginia; Wisconsin; and Pennsylvania. More than a dozen more will meet that criterion by 2030.

Across the country, the number of seniors will grow by more than 40 million, approximately doubling between 2015 and 2050, while the population older than 85 will come close to tripling.

Experts say the nation will have to refashion its workforce, overhaul its old-age programs and learn how to care for tens of millions of elderly people without ruining their families' financial lives.

Care workers in Maine were paid about $11.37 an hour in 2017, according to an AARP report, with a 2019 minimum wage of $11 an hour. As Kristi Penny, who has cared for Honey for four years, noted over the phone: "Even Dunkin' Donuts pays you more."

About one-third of Maine's physicians are older than 60. In several rural counties in the state, close to half of the registered nurses are 55 or older and expected to retire or cut back their hours within a decade.

Betsy Sawyer-Manter, president of the SeniorsPlus agency responsible for placing care workers with Medicaid enrollees, said she was not surprised by Flaherty's story of failing to find a worker for her mother, despite qualifying for care. Sawyer-Manter said that every week her agency cannot fill more than 6,000 hours of direct care that have been authorized by the state because of worker shortages.

"If there aren't any workers in that area, there's nothing we can do," Sawyer-Manter said. "As people retire, we just don't have enough workers to do all the jobs we need done."

The United States is projected to have 7.8 million job openings for care workers by the middle of the next decade, making it among the fastest-growing professions in the country, with millions of new openings created by higher demand; millions of care workers retiring; and millions more finding new professions, according to the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, an advocacy organization. The total cost of caring for America's elderly will double from $2.8 trillion to $5.6 trillion by 2047, a report by the consulting firm PwC found.

"Left unaddressed, this will be catastrophic. We as a country have not wrapped our heads around what it's going to take to pay for long-term care," Chernof said.

Other countries have responded to their aging populations with government-provided care, and many have beefed up the number of aides and providers. America and England are the only economically developed nations in the West that do not provide a universal long-term-care benefit, said Howard Gleckman, author of a book about long-term care and a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

Experts: Our population is aging much faster than is sustainable - elder care will be critically understaffed and unaffordable in the next decade. There's also an entire generation of young people who won't have the necessary wealth to pay for prolonged care of their parents in the future.
Americans: But what can we do to stop it?
Experts: Let in more young unskilled workers who are willing to take low-paying jobs. Legislate a public option that guarantees elder care.
Americans: No.

Being stubborn on immigration/NIMBYism, wages, and healthcare is going to leave a lot of this country dying slowly with no one around to hear the death rattle.

From the writer:

MasterYoshi · Aug 15, 2019

I couldn't even imagine taking care of my parents.

nsilvias · Aug 15, 2019

i guess you could say boomers played themselves?

Dr. Feel Good · Aug 15, 2019

It's been clear for nearly twenty years that we would be heading towards a Japan situation. It's going to be even more fucked because of how massive and spread out our country is. You're going to have thousands of small rural towns completely occupied by old people with no significant younger population for quite a few hundred miles away.

Christian · Aug 15, 2019

Experts say the nation will have to refashion its workforce, overhaul its old-age programs and learn how to care for tens of millions of elderly people without ruining their families' financial lives.

"Experts"?! "Without ruining their families' financial lives"?! Who cares about either of these things?! This is America, goddamnit, not some shithole nation!

obin_gam · Aug 15, 2019

My whole country is like this.
Best wishes /
Sweden

Envelope · Aug 15, 2019

One of the reasons I'm considering staying in the geriatric field as a medical professional rather than switching gears to something hip like urgent care is because the demand really is on that borderline about to explode.

Pandora012 · Aug 15, 2019

And why aren't these care workers paid more?

Wilsongt · Aug 15, 2019

So, boomers pulled the ladder up behind them as they aged, broke the younger generations and prevented a lot of them from getting livable wages, and are now turning around and draining their children/grandchild's finances by needing old age care a lot of them can't afford.

Truly the best generation.

wisdom0wl · Aug 15, 2019

No one's gonna be taking care of aging boomers?

A damn shame, thoughts & prayers.

Wilsongt · Aug 15, 2019

Pandora012 said:
And why aren't these care workers paid more?

Home health/nursing home workers are paid trash because it's low skilled work in nursing homes.

ned_ballad · Aug 15, 2019

I remember when my grandpa had daily aides (thank you Medicaid), they would complain about being paid next to nothing with barely any benefits.

But they were always going into homes with senile, often aggressive and dirty old people and taking the brunt of the abuse. They used to enjoy being scheduled for my grandpa because he was fairly easy going and my grandma was there to help as best she could.

They were also constantly having their schedules re-arranged. It was rare for my grandpa to have the same aide for more than a few days in a row, which was bad because towards the end he wasn't really trusting new people, so consistency helped make his care easier. And there were days where the aides would just outright never show up and they'd leave my grandma (who was disabled, but lucid) to care for my grandfather.

joecanada · Aug 15, 2019

This has been ramping up for years everywhere including Canada where 80 percent of your income will get you full 24 hour care.... but the homes are short staffed constantly so for that cost you end up not even getting your weekly bath or other care gets left undone

Deleted member 7130 · Aug 15, 2019

Gee... if only boomers hadn't voted to cut legal migration of people who could train and fill the ranks of care takers...

Deleted member 135 · Aug 15, 2019

Just hope you live in a state without draconian filial responsibility laws.

Pandora012 · Aug 15, 2019

Wilsongt said:
Home health/nursing home workers are paid trash because it's low skilled work in nursing homes.

yet they are desperately needed.

SlickShoesRUCRazy · Aug 15, 2019

Won't anybody think of the baby boomers? No wait, they can pull themselves up by the boot straps.

Riskbreaker · Aug 15, 2019

There is a solution to this problem that will attract more young workers to the field.

I wonder what that is? 🤔

Kensation · Aug 15, 2019

One of my big fears is being able to take care of my parents when they get old enough to require it. I'm an only child, they are divorced, and I have nowhere near the amount of money required.

Sho_Nuff82 · Aug 15, 2019

Found the Fitch Ratings document referenced in the original article, it does not paint a pretty picture:

https://www.magny.org/assets/docs/Events-2019/2019-1-11-Fitch-updated.PDF

Some of the conclusions are obvious:

- Working age population is the primary demographic component underlying GDP growth
- Immigrants generally provide an immediate boost to the working age population
- Immigrants tend to be relatively younger than the native population
- 78% of the foreign-born population in the U.S. was of working age vs 59% of the native born population
- Beginning in 2030, net international migration is projected to be primary driver of population growth in the U.S. as the natural growth in population slows
- Net international migration should dampen the pace of transitioning to a super-aged nation
- A more restrictive national immigration policy will likely accelerate population and working age population declines in states like NY, NJ, IL, MA, RI, PA

We literally can't afford to be racist, scapegoating isolationists any longer. It's unsustainable. We've run out of time, some states just faster than others.

Deleted member 25606 · Aug 15, 2019

LoL Maine. And that may be underpaid in a lot of places but that's not too bad in Maine, 11 dollars an hour can buy a lot of bath salts.

TrueSloth · Aug 15, 2019

I can tell you from experience, it's a job that is demanding, requires emotional investment, and pays like complete shit. I was running a program for seniors with early onset dementia and activities in memory care one day a week. I was paid 13.50/hour. Most other staff were paid similar wages. I left for a management job with less responsibility and significantly higher pay.

Radd Redd · Aug 15, 2019

Pay them more. Workers will come.

Wilf Netherton · Aug 15, 2019

We probably shouldn't ask people to go into tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of non-dischargeable debt to become qualified for some of these critical jobs then.

Wilsongt · Aug 15, 2019

Also, not only do elder care workers have to face abuse from their patients, but the children of the clients can be downright shitty at times, also.

It's a field only those desperate for a paycheck go into nowadays.

This country is in real shambles. We pay and treat those we want to teach our children like shit and then we pay those we entrust with the care of our elders like shit. When thise are the ones who should really be paid more and rewarded more.

Pilgrimzero · Aug 15, 2019

The fact these positions are highly desired but pay so little, blows my mind. How does that happen?

Shouldn't the pay rate go up to attract people?

TrueSloth · Aug 15, 2019

Pilgrimzero said:
The fact these positions are highly desired by pay so little, blows my mind. How does that happen?

Shouldn't the pay rate go up to attract people?

They get people desperate for a job and hook them in with an emotional investment. It was really challenging leaving the job I was at, because I had a connection to the people I served.

Viriditas · Aug 15, 2019

SG-17 said:
Just hope you live in a state without draconian filial responsibility laws.

What's this now?

Besides younger generations' inability to financially support their elders, I think it's also relevant to consider that many older folks were pretty terrible people to their children. Those children, now that they're adults, shouldn't have to support or even interact with that kind of toxicity just because their parents are older now. The abusive elderly are, in my opinion, best looked after by professional care workers who weren't subjected to that individual's shitty behavior when they were young and vulnerable.

We really need to support, pay, and value care workers much more highly.

Piston · Aug 15, 2019

My parents both just retired and live in Maine, so they fit the description. My grandmother is also turning 90 this year in Maine. Thankfully they all are autonomous still and my grandmother is fit enough physically and mentally to be living on her own without other care needed.

Outside of Portland, Maine is really struggling to recruit any sort of young workforce. Even then, elderly healthcare is not exactly a sexy job and it pays like shit, so who would even want to do it for a living if there are other viable options.

I do have a few high school friends that are currently being paid to go through Med School by the state of Maine (I think the program is at Tufts) if they come back and practice as doctors in the Maine healthcare system for a certain amount of years. I thought that was a cool incentive program.

kittens · Aug 15, 2019

I was just talking about elder care with a friend last night. It's shocking to me that we so brazenly warehouse and neglect our elderly, it's a huge form of violence that is just normalized and swept under the rug. How is this culturally acceptable? It's even more baffling when ALL of us are going to be facing those same conditions when we are old ourselves, with even more risk if you're poor, black or brown, an immigrant, trans, etc. Rationally I know it's just another way that capitalism and colonialism have made our society ugly and inhuman, but still, it's shocking. The fact that the left isn't making a movement out of this is a missed opportunity for intergenerational solidarity and for positive change.

Deleted member 135 · Aug 15, 2019

Viriditas said:
What's this now?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_responsibility_laws

Deleted member 8561 · Aug 15, 2019

It was mentioned a while ago, but its starting to seem like Japan was a prelude to what almost all Western nations are going to face both population wise and in respect to fiscal policy/economy

Sho_Nuff82 · Aug 15, 2019

Pandora012 said:
yet they are desperately needed.

Riskbreaker said:
There is a solution to this problem that will attract more young workers to the field.

I wonder what that is? 🤔

The solutions to the worker shortage are either

a) Let more people into these states who are willing to work low-paying jobs (someone with student loan payments ain't gonna be that person)
b) Pass Medicare for All, which will provide government funding to pay the workers competitive wages.

Viriditas · Aug 15, 2019

SG-17 said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_responsibility_laws

Neo C. · Aug 15, 2019

In my country, the whole health care and elder care won't work without immigration. We have so many people from whole Europe working in hospitals and elder care, it has a significant negative effect to the other countries which are also lacking working force but lose their nurses because we pay better.

Sho_Nuff82 · Aug 15, 2019

kittens said:
I was just talking about elder care with a friend last night. It's shocking to me that we so brazenly warehouse and neglect our elderly, it's a huge form of violence that is just normalized and swept under the rug. How is this culturally acceptable? It's even more baffling when ALL of us are going to be facing those same conditions when we are old ourselves, with even more risk if you're poor, black or brown, an immigrant, trans, etc. Rationally I know it's just another way that capitalism and colonialism have made our society ugly and inhuman, but still, it's shocking. The fact that the left isn't making a movement out of this is a missed opportunity for intergenerational solidarity and for positive change.

You'd think Bernie Sanders of all people (and this isn't ageism here) would be shouting from the rooftops about how Medicare for All covers long term care. But we're still fighting desperately for healthcare for able-bodied working people, which is a reflection for how far the window of discussion is out of whack.

When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) spoke about Medicare-for-all at the July 30 Democratic presidential debate, he talked about how it would improve coverage for people currently receiving it. "For senior citizens, it will finally include dental care, hearing aids and eyeglasses," he said.

But Sanders forgot to mention it would also help senior citizens pay for long-term care, something Medicare doesn't do now.

Yung Coconut · Aug 15, 2019

Utah keeps winning.

Utah Jazz that is.

Sho_Nuff82 · Aug 15, 2019

Yung Coconut said:
Utah keeps winning.

Utah Jazz that is.

Why are there so many young people in Utah? Is it just because Mormons have a lot of babies?

Yung Coconut · Aug 15, 2019

Sho_Nuff82 said:
Why are there so many young people in Utah? Is it just because Mormons have a lot of babies?

Tons of babies.

AndyD · Aug 15, 2019

Pilgrimzero said:
The fact these positions are highly desired but pay so little, blows my mind. How does that happen?

Shouldn't the pay rate go up to attract people?

There's not a lot of revenue either. Medicaid/Medicare rates are low and private payers can only afford so much (on the low end). Private payers who can afford it can have access to nicer places and reliable aides but this is an issue affecting all income ranges.

LegendofJoe · Aug 15, 2019

I need to invest in cremation companies and/or funeral homes.

WedgeX · Aug 15, 2019

Those wages are crazy. Not much different than what I experienced in social work. Which, well, these services are often taxpayer funded. So we know who is at fault.

In addition to current immigration laws/general climate created as of late.

FranktheRabbit · Aug 15, 2019

It seems like the obvious solution would be to pay care workers a living wage, or at least a wage that's competitive with the unskilled labor market. $11.37 an hour for that type of work (which can be extremely stressful) is a joke.

Siggy-P · Aug 15, 2019

Wilsongt said:
Also, not only do elder care workers have to face abuse from their patients, but the children of the clients can be downright shitty at times, also.

It's a field only those desperate for a paycheck go into nowadays.

More than half of the guests at my hotel are people in their 60's. Over the past couple of years I find it hard not to cone to despising the older generations. The amount of active aggresive contempt they have towards you because they know your job means you have to take it when you're just trying to help is breathtaking.

And loads are super sweet. Loads, like genuinely a lot of them, and I do enjoy helping them and you can tell they appreciate it. But fuck me, you never get to help them because the assholes are taking up most of your time wanting to speak to the manager and get the receptionist fired because their friend got a slightly bigger room than they did (because their friend paid for one and they didn't).

If I was a carer and got that shit non-stop, and was expected to litteraly wipe their ass for them on that pay, I'd be out the door day 1 and never looking back.

Foffy · Aug 15, 2019

As someone who actually worked as a home health aide for the elderly and disabled, if people can avoid work based on conditions, this will be a problem that will rightfully never get solved.

My experience was one where zero-hour contracts were a thing. In the United States. You can be promised a job but no hours, and the "fend for yourself" approach was enough for me to abandon it, though my feeling incapable of dealing with what I felt were the real problems of suffering ended up being secondary to this decision. If people know my post history on the mind and suffering, it may be amusing to learn that stuff was not the main reason I abandoned it all.

If you're going to set up an economy where hours are basically whenever they're posted and you happen to be awake to see them, this "industry" deserves to be an employee ghost town. I'm not even talking wages per hour, but how hours are even given. Issues start before we even get into wages.

kyle mechlachlan · Aug 15, 2019

what a shitty fucking future we have in store for ourselves.

WhoTurgled · Aug 15, 2019

My mom is taking care of her mom and its making her life hell. I will have to do the same for both my parents in the future, and I will, and it will be hell

lowmelody · Aug 15, 2019

Boomers: "Medicare for all would give me a semblance of a life but welfare queens and blacks would benefit too so nah. Also it's socialism."

MilesQ · Aug 15, 2019

Boomers who can afford it will hire help from abroad, those that can't are going to suffer tremendously and it's a damn shame because while it's easy to lay the blame at their feet, they were played just like everyone else. The problem is they still refuse to believe it and insist on being ass backwards.

theme park joe · Aug 15, 2019

My parents are getting older and will need care, this is terrifying.

Foffy · Aug 15, 2019

MilesQ said:
Boomers who can afford it will hire help from abroad, those that can't are going to suffer tremendously and it's a damn shame because while it's easy to lay the blame at their feet, they were played just like everyone else. The problem is they still refuse to believe it and insist on being ass backwards.

Most people go through their life savings in less than 2 and a half years with a cancer diagnosis. Just that.

I think "Boomers" who can afford it is less than 5% of them. Boomerangs eventually fly back, so for the first generation that consumed more as it aged, destroyed all of the ladders to any "middle class life" and objects to any solutions to it, as dark as it is to say, but in some respects they deserve the karma of this.

WaPo: Maine (and soon to be dozens of other states) already suffering from understaffed elder care and lack of young workers

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