In June 2012 CLHIA (Canadian Life and health Insurance Association Inc.) released an extensive policy paper entitled Improving the Accessibility, Quality and Sustainability of Long Term Care in Canada. This paper examines the future cost of long term care in Canada over the next 35 years to support the baby boomers as they pass through old age and concludes that a significant funding gap exists.
Conservatively, the cost in current dollars, of providing long term care over this timeframe is almost $1.2 trillion. Current levels of government program and funding support will cover about $595 billion of this total cost. As a result, Canadians currently have an unfunded liability for long term care of $590 billion which is the equivalent of about 95 percent of all individual RRSPs in Canada today. As a result, Canadians currently face an astounding long-term care funding shortfall of about $590 billion or roughly $54,000 for each baby boomer in Canada today.
The paper proposes a number of recommendations organized around the following themes:
- Encouraging Canadians to save for long term care
- Patient centered approach to long term care
- Restructuring of long term care to recognize the continuum of care – from informal care provided by family caregivers through to home care and institutional care
- Ensuring sufficient capacity of long term care – enough beds and care professionals
- Encouraging health and wellness promotion by all levels of government
But something very critical is missing from these recommendations…find out what in Views.