Berwick on the Park (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By David Charbonneau

Eyeview

CHARBONNEAU: Baby boomers’ long-term care goes bust

Oct 17, 2019 | 11:09 AM

THE LONG-TERM CARE OF BOOMERS is an unfunded liability. Unlike the Canadian Pension Plan and Old Age Security, the longterm care of boomers is not funded at all. Our health care is not prepared to receive their numbers.

Other countries with similar longterm care pressures, such as Germany and Japan, have established various forms of public longterm care insurance. Not in Canada.

As it now stands, longterm care falls on the shoulders of family members who provide for 75 per cent of home care for older Canadians, unpaid. Canadians typically don’t see the gaps in the current publicly-funded care programs until they or a family member falls through them.

Research from the National Institute on Aging at Ryerson University shows that if Canada continues on its current track, the cost of publicly funded longterm care for seniors – including nursing homes and home care – is expected to more than triple in 30 years, rising from $22 billion to $71 billion, in today’s dollars. Authors of the research, Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald and Michael Wolfson, warn:

“There is no special fund or program to cover the costs of longterm care in Canada. And it is not covered under the Canada Health Act in the same way as physician and hospital care.” (Globe and Mail, October 8, 2019)

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Canadians are dreaming if they think our healthcare system can deal with the onslaught of boomers that will be falling into longterm care. Hospitals are now struggling to place seniors in longterm care facilities and the wave of boomers hasn’t even hit yet.

Private long-term care insurance is available but expensive because of the low number of people buying it. It hasn’t worked here in Canada and is unlikely to work in the future.

Private long-term residences are having trouble staffing. In Kamloops, Berwick on the Park’s supportive living unit will close next year, leaving 20 residents without round-the-clock care, despite the fact that residents pay $5,000-per-month for the service. The director of Berwick wrote to residents:

“There are significant challenges to retain healthcare staff in the current labour environment. An extraordinary amount of energy has been directed at recruitment and onboarding staff to meet the obligations to successfully operate our licensed care unit. The forward-looking labor forecast indicates that these challenges will continue for the foreseeable future.” (Kamloops This Week, October 10, 2010)

Even if private longterm care were available, many boomers couldn’t afford it. Debt among seniors is increasing, according to Stats Canada. In 2016, the proportion of senior families with consumer and mortgage debt doubled since 1999.

Boomers have led privileged lives. They grew up during a period of increasing affluence due in part to widespread post-war government subsidies in housing and education. Baby boomers were more active and more physically fit than any preceding generation and were the first to grow up genuinely expecting the world to improve with time. While they have accumulated wealth, many boomers have lived beyond their means.

Boomers’ optimism for a better world is going to be severely tested as they age.

Canada needs to establish a new long-term social insurance program. Given that health care is controlled by provinces, a patchwork system will be the likelihood as boomers totter into old age.

The current rickety longterm care system is not prepared for the wave of boomers.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.