Miami University

The Value of Long-Term Care in Ohio: Public Dollars and Private Dedications
S.A. Mehdizadeh & L.D. Murdoch
May 2003

Full Report (PDF, 42 pages)
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This report provides estimates of the number of older people in Ohio who received long-term care in 1999 and identifies:
        1) Whether they are receiving formal care: a) in an institution; b) in the community; or c) receiving informal care from family, friends, and neighbors in the community.
        2) The value of care provided in each setting; and
        3) Who paid for the care?
In addition, this report discusses whether Ohio can continue with its present policies, given an expected and unprecedented increase in the number of older people as well as disabled, older people in the next 50 years.

Key Findings:

• From a total of 1.5 million older people in Ohio, only an estimated 10 percent were so disabled that they could not care for themselves; another 18 percent required some help with shopping, preparing meals, and doing heavy chores around the house.
• A little less than half of the 153,000 older people with severe disability were receiving care in Ohio’s long-term care institutions. The remaining 77,000 were receiving care at home.
• About 26,000 people with severe disability had some of their care publicly funded by either a home and community-based Medicaid waiver (PASSPORT program) or by local tax levies approved specifically for care of older people with disabilities.
• More than a quarter million older people were moderately disabled, and needed help with shopping, meal preparation, chores around the house, and money management.
• The overall economic value of long-term care to older Ohioans with disability reached 10 billion dollars. Of this total, the value of family care accounted for about half; about 30 percent was in the form of publicly funded services, mostly nursing home care funded by Medicaid; and more than 20 percent came from private sources, mostly out of pocket payments.

In the future, a greater proportion of the older population will reach the advanced ages at which the need for long-term care is greatest. In 1999, about 12 percent of the 65 and over population were 85 years or older. By 2050, this segment of the older population will grow to 34 percent of the total older population. Since the prevalence of disability increases with age, increasingly the state of Ohio will be faced with an aged population who need long-term care regularly. At the least, the state must educate the public on both the likelihood of needing long-term care and the cost of that care.
Policy Implications

This research was funded as part of a grant from the Ohio General Assembly, through the Ohio Board of Regents to the Ohio Long-Term Care Research Project.

Full Report (PDF, 42 pages)

To obtain information concerning the cost and to order printed copies of the full report, contact Scripps Gerontology Center at: 513/529-2914 or scripps@muohio.edu.


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