9-27-2019 Handout Elder Boom Worker Shortage

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agency cannot fill more than 6,000 hours of direct care that have been. authorized by the state because of worker shortages. "If there aren't any workers in that area, there's nothing we can do," Sawyer-Manter said. "As people retire, we just don't have enough workers to do all the jobs we need done." 'One family at a e From 2015 to 2050, the number of Americans 85 and older will increase by more than 200 percent, while those ages 75 to 84 will rise by more than loo percent, according to AARP. By contrast, the number of Americans younger than 65 will increase by about 12 percent. America's federal programs have not kept pace with this enormous demographic shift. With a few minor exceptions, Medicare does not pay for long -term -care services. Medicaid offers limited benefits but is available only to the very poor. The private market also has not been able to fill the void, as 7 percent of costs in the long -term -care market are covered by private long- term insurers. The United States is projected to have 7.8 million job openings for care workers by the middle of the next decade, making it among the fastest-growing professions in the country, with millions of new openings created by higher demand; millions of care workers retiring; and millions more finding new professions, according to the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, an advocacy organization. The total cost of caring for America's elderly will double from $2.8 trillion to $5.6 trillion by 2047, a report by the consulting firm PwC found. "The U.S. is just starting this journey, and Maine is at the leading edge," said Jess Maurer, executive director of the Maine Council on Aging. "As we are living longer, all the systems that have always worked for us may have to be changed." Congress created a commission to study the long -term -care problem. In 2013, it issued dozens of recommendations, including a "national strategy" to help family caregivers, but "a fair number of these things have not been implemented. Those that have been implemented are being implemented far too slowly," said Bruce Chernof, co-author of the commission's report