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Caring For An Aging Parent Takes An Out-Of-Pocket Toll

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By JANE GROSS, New York Times

Published: November 19, 2007

The out-of-pocket cost of caring for an aging parent or spouse averages about $5,500 a year, according to the nation's first in-depth study of such expenses, a sum that is more than double previous estimates and more than the average American household spends annually on health care and entertainment combined.

Family members responsible for ailing loved ones provide not only "hands on" care but often reach into their own pockets to pay for many other expenses of care recipients, including groceries, household goods, drugs, medical co-payments and transportation. That nudges the average cost of providing long-distance care to $8,728 a year.

These caregivers, spending on average 10 percent of their household income, manage the financial burden by taking out loans, skipping vacations, dipping into savings or ignoring their own health care.

These findings and others, to be released today, came from a telephone survey of 1,000 adults caring for someone over age 50 who needs help with activities such as bathing, shopping or managing finances.

The survey was conducted by the National Alliance for Caregiving, a research and policy organization, and Evercare, a division of the UnitedHealth Group, which coordinates long-term care for 150,000 clients. The report urges government assistance for family caregivers, whether through tax deductions, tax credits or other stipends.

"Typically, when people talk about services for caregivers, they mean respite care, support groups and things like that," said Gail Gibson Hunt, president of the National Alliance for Caregiving. "They don't think of the financial side being tied into the burden. If you're spending 10 percent of your income, that's part of what's weighing on you, and policymakers haven't paid enough attention to that."

Until now, all estimates of out-of-pocket spending were based on a single question buried in a broad 2004 survey of family caregivers, according to Hunt and Donna Wagner, a gerontologist at Towson University in Maryland who analyzed the data for the new report.

The 2004 survey, also the work of the National Alliance for Caregiving, had asked 1,247 caregivers to estimate their out-of-pocket expenses. Half said that they did have such expenses, averaging $2,400 a year.

By comparison, the new survey produced a different result. Of the 1,000 respondents, only two said they had never laid out any money. The rest said they spent on average $5,531 a year. The burden was heavier for those who earned less, 20 percent for respondents with incomes of $25,000.

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