CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 - HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CHANGE AHEAD obtain needed medical care during the previous 12 months due to cost . Consumers age 65 and older averaged out-of-pocket health care expenditures of $ 6,833 in 2019 , an increase of 41 % since 2009 ($ 4,846 ). In contrast , the total population spent considerably less , averaging $ 5,193 in out-of-pocket costs .
Older Americans spent 13.6 % of their total expenditures on health , as compared to 8.2 % among all consumers . Health costs incurred on average by older consumers in 2019 consisted of $ 4,748 ( 69 %) for insurance , $ 1,054 ( 15 %) for medical services , $ 737 ( 11 %) for drugs , and $ 293 ( 4 %) for medical supplies .
Health Insurance Coverage In 2019 , almost all ( 94 %) non-institutionalized persons age 65 and older were covered by Medicare . Medicare covers mostly acute care services and requires beneficiaries to pay part of the cost , leaving about half of health spending to be covered by other sources . About half of older adults ( 52 %) had some type of private health insurance , 6 % had military-based health insurance , 6 % were covered by Medicaid , and 1 % had no coverage .
Disability and Physical Functioning
In 2019 , 19 % of adults age 65 and older reported they could not function at all or had a lot of difficulty with at least one of six functioning domains . In each domain , the percentage reporting any level of
difficulty varied . Specifically , 22 % reported trouble seeing ( even if wearing glasses ), 31 % reported difficulty hearing ( even if wearing hearing aids ), 40 % reported trouble with mobility ( walking or climbing stairs ), 8 % reported difficulty with communication ( understanding or being understood by others ), 27 % reported trouble with cognition ( remembering or concentrating ), and 9 % reported difficulty with self-care ( such as washing all over or dressing ).
Caregiving Older adults often provide care to younger family members . For example , approximately 1.1 million grandparents age 60 and older were responsible for the basic needs of one or more grandchildren under age 18 living with them in 2019 . Of these caregivers , 60 % were grandmothers and 40 % were grandfathers . In 2019 , among the 5.37 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities living with a family caregiver , 24 % had caregivers who were age 60 and older ( 1,304,998 ). The percentage of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities living with older caregivers ranged from 13 % in Utah to 24 % in Florida .
These are excerpts from the 2020 Profile of Older Americans , which was issued by the Administration on Aging ( AoA ), part of the Administration for Community Living , an operating division of the U . S . Department of Health and Human Services . AoA serves as an advocate for older adults within the federal government and is working to encourage and coordinate a responsive system of family- and community-based services throughout the nation . Principal sources of data are the U . S . Census Bureau , the National Center for Health Statistics , and the Bureau of Labor Statistics . This report can be found online at acl . gov by searching for 2020 Profile of Older Americans .