Issue link: http://clhia.uberflip.com/i/354923
1. INTRODUCTION The face of health care in Canada is changing. Shorter hospital stays, more outpatient treatments and an aging population with longer life expectancy are increasing the need for long-term care for many Canadians. Moreover, the demand for long-term care in Canada will grow dramatically as the baby boomer generation passes through old age. Baby boomers began to retire in 2012. Currently about 14 per cent of Canadians are over the age of 65 and this is forecast to increase to 25 per cent by 2035 as the boomer generation ages. The aging demographic is critical to understanding the future pressures on long-term care in Canada. Even though we are living longer, the older we get, the more likely we will be managing a chronic disease and the more likely that we will need some degree of support - either in our homes or in an institutional setting. According to Statistics Canada, the chances of requiring long-term care are one in ten by age 55, three in ten by age 65 and five in ten by age 75. 1 Long-term care is not included under the Canada Health Act and, therefore, is not available to Canadians on a universal basis. While there are government programs aimed at assisting Canadians with long-term care expenses, these programs are not adequate to cover the full costs of providing long-term care to Canadians. In addition, government support varies by jurisdiction and typically is income-based. As a result, in many cases, Canadians will be largely responsible for the cost of their long-term care needs. The CLHIA conservatively estimates that over the next 35 years, as the boomer generation passes through their old age, the current long-term care liability facing Canadians is just short of $1.2 trillion. At current levels, all governments in Canada have programs in place that will cover only $595 billion of long-term care costs over that period. 2 As a result, Canadians currently have an unfunded long-term care liability of $590 billion. To put this figure into perspective, $590 billion is roughly equivalent to 80% of all RRSPs held by Canadians or, alternatively, it is larger than the combined GDP of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Unfortunately, many Canadians continue to hold the mistaken belief that all of their long-term care expenses will be covered by governments and are financially unprepared for these potential costs. In a 2012 survey conducted by Leger Marketing on behalf of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance 1 Statistics Canada: Health Expectancy in Canada. 2 CLHIA report "Improving the Accessibility, Quality and Sustainability of Long-term Care in Canada" at www.clhia.ca