Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Long-Term Care and Lifetime Earnings: Assessing the Potential to Pay

Publication Date

This report examines the relationship between lifetime earnings and use of Medicaid-financed long-term care services in a nationally representative survey of older adults. The authors calculate the shares of older adults who are ever disabled, ever use any long-term care services, ever receive Medicaid-financed home care, and ever experience Medicaid-financed nursing home stays over a 13-year period. The report shows how these proportions vary by demographic characteristics and lifetime earnings, and examines the characteristics of adults who ever use Medicaid-financed home or institutional care. It assesses how many Medicaid enrollees receiving long-term earned enough when they were working to have potentially set aside sufficient savings to cover substantial portions of their future long-term care needs. [36 PDF pages]