Long-Term Care Needs Bump Up At-Risk Retiree Group

A news release from the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College, which publishes the NRRI with Nationwide, says the addition of long-term care bumps the index from 61% a year ago to about 64%. The index measures the number of people who may not be financially prepared for retirement.

According to the announcement, the NRRI baseline reading without the health-care impact was 44% and the 61% figure includes only general health-care expenses.

After adding the expected cost of long-term care insurance and out-of-pocket health care spending in retirement, the target replacement rate jumps to 98%, compared with the original NRRI replacement rate of 76% and the basic health NRRI replacement rate at 92%.

Noted the CRR authors: ” As with past NRRI analyses, these latest findings raise major concerns about the retirement security of baby boomers and succeeding generations.”

The CRR said long-term care plays a critical role in the retirement of many Americans so it needs to be considered in the overall retirement readiness calculations.

“Long-term care is an important expenditure risk for the elderly,” the authors wrote. “People tend to lose some of their abil­ity to function as they get older, and these losses can become severe late in life. To compensate, older people need assistance with basic activities of daily liv­ing (such as bathing, eating, dressing, and using the toilet) and with tasks necessary for independent living (such as shopping, cooking and housework).”

The NRRI is updated twice annually. The latest report is available here .