The nation's largest health-care philanthropy on Tuesday said a new poll indicates that Americans between 45 and 60 are as worried about chronic illness as they are about job loss, crime and their children's education.
Providing care for a chronically ill aging parent worried more than 40 percent of those surveyed, according to results of a randomized telephone survey of 1,000 adults announced by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, of Princeton, N.J.Respondents said they had about the same level of concern for caregiving as the more publicized concerns of crime, job loss and children's education. Results indicate that nearly half of this segment of this population, destined to be the first generation to confront these issues under health reform, already has had to care for someone with a chronic illness.
"This issue is a time bomb," said Ethel Klein, president of EDK associates, the New York-based research firm that conducted the survey. Many Americans are not financially or emotionally prepared for the demand of becoming a chronic caregiver.
Only 25 percent of those surveyed said they knew that a parent's health insurance would not cover home health aides in the event the parent had Alzheimer's disease.
"Sooner or later, these respondents are in for a big surprise," said Klein's report. "People are expecting some kind of safety net that does not exist."
As respondents considered their potential role as a caregiver, the lack of adequate support engendered conflict in many.
"I want to be there for my parents, but what about my kids?" was a common reaction recorded during the interviews, Klein said.
The issue also confronts those taking care of younger people whose lives are extended because of improvement in medical advances, but who nevertheless remain impaired and dependent.
"We're seeing this as a pervasive trend across medical science," said Dr. Lewis Sandy, head of the foundation's chronic care goal group.
"Most people don't prepare," said former first lady Rosalynn Carter. "They are thrust into the situation."