Cost More a Concern than Quality In Future Care for Elderly Parents

June 25, 2007 — -- Most baby boomers think their aging parents have good options for quality health care when they can no longer look after themselves. But the cost is another matter.

Watch ABC News broadcasts and read USA Today this week for reports in the series, "Role Reversal: Your Aging Parents and You."

Only a third of boomers in this ABC News/USA Today poll think their parents have good choices when it comes to the expense of senior care. That compares with 57 percent who think the alternatives are good in terms of the quality of care, rather than its cost.

Some speak from experience: Four in 10 baby boomers with a living parent (including a stepparent or parent-in law) currently are providing them with some kind of assistance -- more often personal care than financial help. And one in four (27 percent) has a parent living somewhere other than on their own -- in a nursing home or assisted-care facility (12 percent), with them (eight percent) or with another relative (eight percent more).

For many more, issues of elder care may lie ahead: Among all baby boomers -- adults born between 1946 and 1964 -- the vast majority, 73 percent, have a living parent, stepparent or parent-in-law. "Role Reversal: Your Aging Parents and You" is the subject of a network-wide ABC News special the week of June 25.

How many boomers will be called on to help their parents is an open question. Six in 10 currently do not provide ongoing personal care (such as checking in regularly or helping with appointments) or financial assistance for their aging parents. Most in this group, 55 percent, don't think they'll be called upon to provide help in the future.

Concerns about elder care peak among those boomers who do expect to be called on to assist with their parents' care in the future. In this group -- just over a fifth of all boomers -- 72 percent are concerned about their parents' future care, and a third are "very" concerned about it.

By contrast, boomers who are not providing assistance now and don't expect to provide it in the future are much less apt to express concern about the issue -- just 31 percent are concerned, including 13 percent "very" concerned.