The long-term care market reached $305 billion in 2015, according to healthcare market research firm Kalorama Information. The company has reported on the markets for assisted living, nursing care, home care and hospice for a decade and has found no slowdown in the growth of the market as a whole.
“Boomers represent approximately 76 million individuals in the United States in 2015,” Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information, said in a statement. “This enormous group will be making decisions about whether senior living is the right option for their aging loved ones and eventually for themselves.”
Kalorama Information’s most recent report, “The Long Term Care Market,” provides market sizing and forecasts for assisted living, skilled nursing, home care and hospice — as well as market analysis. In addition to an increase in life expectancy, the report notes these existing or anticipated trends:
- As the U.S. population as a whole becomes more ethnically diverse, so will the elderly population.
- Elderly men are about twice as likely as elderly women to be married and living with their spouses, whereas elderly women are three times as likely as elderly men to be widowed.
- Most elderly men have a spouse to act as caregiver when they need assistance, whereas most elderly women do not.
- Elderly women are much more likely than men are to live alone.
- The estimated median household income for householders aged 65 or more years was $32,000 in 2015, with a large portion of that amount coming from Social Security payments. Residential nursing care, according to Genworth, averaged more than $250 per day for a semi-private room in 2015, assisted living costs can exceeding $3,600 per month for basic care, and home care can cost $20 per hour or less in many areas, but those who require a higher level of care may pay $1,500 or more per month.
