San Francisco Bay Area faces senior care crunch
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As the country's senior population grows, affordable long-term care in the San Francisco Bay Area is increasingly hard to find.
Why it matters: Nearly 70% of older adults will need long-term care services, but Medicare doesn't cover these services, and Medicaid often has long wait lists for at-home support, said Samara Scheckler, a research associate at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.
What's happening: Among adults 75 and older in the San Francisco metro area who live alone, 83% cannot afford daily in-home care, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies.
- Assisted living is also out of reach for older adults in the area, as 85% of them cannot afford it, according to the center.
- The San Francisco area has one of the highest median costs for assisted living and other costs of living at $96,800.
- Of note: Metro area data includes San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley.
What they're saying: "The cost of daily assistance at home is out of reach for most," Scheckler said, "and so is assisted living, which bundles housing and care together."
Zoom out: The issue isn't specific to San Francisco. Nationwide, 87% of adults 75 and older in U.S. metro areas living alone cannot afford assisted living without diving into assets, per the center.
- Meanwhile, 86% cannot afford a daily visit from a home health aide along with their housing costs.
Between the lines: There's also a growing shortage of care providers. While most people prefer in-home care — and it's cheaper for states to fund — not everyone can receive care at home, said Priya Chidambaram at KFF.
- Many seniors require the resources and medical equipment of larger facilities.
The big picture: U.S. life expectancy is on the rise, so care needs to last longer.
- "It's a wonderful thing that the older population is growing overall and people are living longer than a generation ago," said Jennifer Molinsky, project director for Harvard's Housing an Aging Society Program.
- But the support system they need to stay in their homes and community "are really expensive and hard to secure."
Go deeper: Aging America faces a senior care crisis.