Siena Poll for LeadingAge New York Shows Need to Educate New
Yorkers About Long-Term Care Issues By Ami Schnauber
The recently completed Siena College poll of New York
voters 50 and older, conducted on behalf of LeadingAge New
York, shows that 70 percent are concerned that they will
need help with their everyday needs as they grow older, and
70 percent are also concerned about their ability to afford
that care.
In fact, a strong majority of 57 percent of New Yorkers 50 and
older are concerned about both needing help with every day
needs and affordability of care, while only 18 percent are not
concerned about either needing or being able to afford care.
These are just two of the questions in this wide-ranging
survey that will help LeadingAge New York and our members
understand the views of older and soon-to-be older New
Yorkers. Full results of the survey can be found here www.
leadingageny.org.
Among other key findings:
• Only 28 percent of New Yorkers 50 and older have
purchased long term care insurance, compared to 68
percent who have not;
• A bare majority (52-47 percent) have a plan to address
their needs (housing, transportation, meals, daily personal
needs) as they get older;
• These New Yorkers have some misconceptions about the
sources of funding for how their long-term care needs
will be paid:
• 89 percent say their savings, pension and monthly
Social Security check is what they will rely on;
• 82 percent say they will rely on Medicare;
• 61 percent say they will rely on “other benefits” from
Social Security;
alone facility located in a mixed-use neighborhood that
specializes in one level of care” if they reach a point
where they can no longer live independently;
• There is strong preference – 56-18 percent – for living in
a non-profit senior living facility, rather than a for-profit
facility;
• One-quarter would prefer to live in a long-term care
facility affiliated with their religion;
• Where do New Yorkers 50 and older go for information
about long-term care services?
• 25 percent – Google
• 21 percent – family and friends
• 13 percent – State agency website
• 12 percent – doctor or nurse
What does all of this mean for LeadingAge New York
membership? It means we have a lot of work to do to help
educate and inform older and middle aged New Yorkers
about long term care – the services available, how services
are paid for and which resources are available to help fund
those services.
While we’ve long known that aging New Yorkers are
concerned about the care they will receive as they get older,
we now also know that too many of these future potential
clients appear to be burying their heads in the sand when it
comes to being informed consumers. LeadingAge NY will be
working with members in the coming months to implement
an education strategy – including through the successful
“Young at Heart” campaign – to ensure that New Yorkers
have access to the long term care they need.
Unfortunately, as we know,
Medicare and other Social Security
benefits either do not exist at all,
or do would not cover the vast
majority of long term care costs;
• By a 51-25 percent margin,
these New Yorkers would
prefer a “campus-like setting
at which various levels of care
are available on a progressive
basis,” rather that a “stand-
leadingageny.org
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