TikTok is the latest medium generating attention for the assisted living industry, and not necessarily the good kind of attention.
In a recent 25-second video, an adult daughter looking into assisted living for a parent said: “I called an eldercare facility to find out pricing for, like, assisted living for, potentially, one of my parents, and they said $8,000 a month. At least $8,000 a month. Who is going to pay for that? Who is going to pay for that?”
That video, posted by a user named WellWithTiffany on Nov. 27, had been liked by more than 30,000 people as of Jan. 21, with more than 4,500 people commenting on it. And those numbers are only going to increase, because BuzzFeed published an article about it on Friday. The media outlet identified the poster as 42-year-old Tiffany Stuart of New York City.
“This is the conversation we need to start having,” Stuart posted along with her video, which generated additional discussion among TikTok users about the cost of assisted living, others’ experiences and the need for more education about long-term care.
“We tell everyone to save for college, but we don’t tell them to save for assisted living,” one of the most-liked comments read. Long-term care insurance, Medicaid and advance financial planning were some of the potential solutions discussed on the social media platform.
The TikTok video itself and BuzzFeed’s writing about it at first might not seem like good attention for the assisted living field, especially not on the heels of an article package by the New York Times and KFF Health News that scrutinized the industry’s pricing structure, rate increases and most providers’ for-profit status, as well as a recent package by the Washington Post that questioned industry safety and quality-related efforts. Those articles prompted Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) to question three of the largest senior living providers and to schedule a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, which he chairs, for this Thursday.
But Stuart and the other poster make important points that have significance to operators’ long-term livelihood. Word does need to be spread far and wide to the general public about how much long-term care can cost, that people must prepare for their potential needs and the needs of their loved ones, and that middle-market solutions increasingly are becoming available.
The industry also is advocating for solutions from policymakers — such as expanding Medicaid, modernizing tax savings programs to include long-term care, increasing the availability of long-term care insurance, incentivizing retirement savings and more — and must continue to do so and let the public know the reasoning behind those efforts.
A recent survey by KFF that was mentioned in the New York Times / KFF package found that two-thirds of those aged 50 or more years are anxious about assisted living and nursing home affordability. Knowledge will be power for them and for senior living providers.
For providers and all of the adult daughters and others caring for older loved ones, society can’t afford to kick solving this issue down the road anymore.
Lois A. Bowers is the editor of McKnight’s Senior Living. Read her other columns here. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at Lois_Bowers.
