How Younger Generations Can Reduce Costs of Caregiving

Younger generations can play a vital role in improving relationships with siblings and reducing the costs of caregiving. Caring for an aging parent takes an emotional toll on caregivers’ emotional and physical health.

When managing caregiving alongside their own lives, careers, and families, adult children struggle to manage burnout and deal with resistant parents, family conflict, medical, financial, and legal issues.

Cross-generational sharing and communication can bridge generation gaps and benefit families by sharing knowledge that supports better choices and new life stories around family caregiving.

Family Caregiving Insights for Younger Generations

In this article, younger generations can gain insights into essential caregiving topics that can have unintended impacts on their lives if not considered or discussed with aging parents. While aging parents may not always initiate these conversations, younger generations can play a role in starting them.

• Why family caregiving and healthcare are so costly
• Public sector programs that place greater caregiving burdens on families instead of educating families to make good choices around health and well-being
• How cross-generational sharing and communication can support new life stories around health, well-being, caregiving, and aging by changing family interactions to reduce generational poverty, as family expectations around caregiving can drive
• Steps younger generations can take to effect permanent and long-lasting change around active and healthy aging

By looking at family relationships and costs of caregiving through a different lens, adult children will feel empowered to collaborate with siblings and aging parents. Families and future generations will break free from struggles and limitations that prevent upward progress.

Imagine a World Where …

Family caregiving struggles end because families foster relationships to share knowledge about proactively managing health, healthcare, finances, and legal matters, reducing the costs of caregiving.

• Rather than elderly parents worrying about eldercare, they live healthy, independent lives for as long as possible.
• Younger generations confidently pursue their dreams. Life will no longer be put on hold, delayed, or derailed by unexpected events or family expectations around caregiving.

Let’s begin with why family caregiving for loved ones with chronic health problems is costly, and caregiving expectations trap some families in cycles of generational poverty.

Healthcare Costs are Unaffordable and Will Continue to Rise

Unaffordable healthcare costs are driven by adults being diagnosed with chronic diseases earlier in life. Costs of caregiving are significantly impacted by poor health, time off work to attend medical appointments, co-pays for medical appointments, medications, and the impact of self-care needs or caregiving on daily life.

• The Health and Retirement Study confirms that 50% of people age 55 and older have 4 or 5 chronic conditions, with many of these individuals also having a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer’s.
• Approximately 45% of persons diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. are working age, 20-64. Fifteen percent were unable to work or limited their work in the first year after diagnosis.

Most families cannot afford the skyrocketing costs of healthcare, eldercare, and long-term care services driven by health declines.

• According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, U.S. healthcare costs soared to $4.9 trillion in 2023.
• Medical debt affects 41% of U.S. adults.
• The United States has the highest healthcare costs per capita across similar countries.
• Since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation establishing the Medicare and Medicaid programs on July 30, 1965, the public sector has been challenged to improve outcomes, eliminate waste, and ensure these programs do not continue to consume more and more of the U.S. Federal Budget.

Focusing on Upstream Opportunities Vs. Downstream Responses for Costs of Caregiving

While older adults today can’t turn back the clock to start over, younger generations can change the future of family caregiving. This statement illustrates downstream responses versus upstream opportunities related to the costs of caregiving.

Public sector programs, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, exist to ensure that low-income older adults can access healthcare, food, shelter, and medication.

These programs, health insurance for working populations, and medical care for the sick are downstream solutions to issues already occurring.

As people continue to live longer and less healthy lives, dependence on these programs and the related financial expenditures will increase. Events and spending prove this fact since July 30, 1965, when Medicare and Medicaid were enacted.

An upstream opportunity exists for younger generations to seek education about topics that impact financial stability, health, and healthy aging, thereby reducing downstream solutions that increase the costs of caregiving and drive up healthcare expenditures.

Being in good health allows individuals to pursue life activities with fewer restrictions. Individuals in good health are less likely to be diagnosed with chronic disease and more likely to live a happier, longer, independent, active, and productive lives.

Public Sector Programs Reduce Government Spending But Devastate the Lives of Family Caregivers

One program offered through the Department of Health and Human Services for family caregivers seeks to reduce government expenditures. However, in many cases, program participation financially devastates caregivers, sabotages their careers, and damages their health.

For example, the state Medicaid program that provides consumer-directed care to help older adults remain in their homes pays family caregivers to care for aging parents. These caregivers face significant physical, emotional, and financial burdens.

Many are uncertain about being paid by Medicaid to care for eldelry parents. However, they lack the skills to evaluate the long-term and short-term benefits for their own lives and for their elderly parents.

Caregiving expert, Pamela D Wlison, is a caregiver counselor who meets virtually with family caregivers and aging parents to discuss a variety of situations related to making decisions around all aspects of caregiving.

Participation in Public Sector Programs Can Result in Generational Poverty for Caregivers

Many of these caregivers and low-income parents participating in these programs struggle to live above the poverty level. This is an example of a government program that promotes intergenerational poverty for the next generation of caregivers.

Family caregivers participating in these programs give up a career or job with potential advancement and earnings growth for lower compensation and no benefits through consumer-directed Medicaid programs.

• These family caregivers lack the work skills needed to re-employ themselves when caring for a loved one ends.
• Caregivers who continue to work and care for family members do so at the expense of career advancement and retirement savings, as they reduce work hours or switch to a less demanding job.
• Women caregivers experience a lifetime loss of $295,000 in income and benefits based on inflation-adjusted figures from 2021.

Family Caregivers Experience Worse Health Outcomes

Another program, the CMS Guide Program, provides training for family caregivers to provide activity-of-daily-living (ADL) support for loved ones with dementia, which poses similar risks for family caregivers.

The goal of the program is to delay or prevent nursing home placement to reduce Medicare and Medicaid expenditures. While this has a positive effect on government expenditures, there are unspoken costs of caregiving for caregivers.

A report by Milken confirms that:

• Caregivers are at an increased risk for health issues, with 84% reporting that caregiving significantly impacts their stress levels.
• 4% of caregivers rate their health as fair or poor, nearly double the rate of non-caregivers.
• In 2010, family caregivers incurred 8% higher medical costs totaling $13.4 billion annually.
• Caregivers’ overall health outcomes are 26% worse than those of the general population. The primary driver of these issues is stress, which is associated with higher rates of depression, diabetes, hypertension, and pulmonary diseases.

Helpful Caregivers Can Suffer Unintended Consequences

While spouses and adult children have good intentions to care for aging loved ones, their actions carry a severe long-term cost: financial instability for their families.

Consumers can no longer rely on the public sector to manage healthcare, long-term care, and caregiver support programs. Instead of feeling frustrated or exhausted, families can take on a leadership role by collaborating and setting an example for the next generations of family caregivers on how to manage the costs of caregiving.

Older adults who worry about “what will happen to me when I am old and need care” can take charge of health, healthcare, financial, and legal matters.  Families who support independent choices and decisions aligned with personal values reduce the influence of external factors and limitations.

These families will become more self-reliant and depend less on public sector programs for support. In this case, everyone wins. Public sector expenses decrease, as well as the costs of caregiving for the elderly and their family members.

Parental Relationships with Gen Z and Millennials

While caregiving for family members at the end of life can be stressful, support between aging parents and their children goes both ways, according to articles in Fortune and Newsweek, and a report by the TIAA Institute and Penn Nursing.

• Half of parents pay their Gen Z and Millennial children $1,474 a month, but they plan to pull the plug in the next two years because it’s eating into their retirement.
• GenZ is relying on parents later in life for support, including when choosing an employer-sponsored health insurance plan.
• The financial burdens of caregiving are often steeper for both women and younger generations. Twenty-five percent of caregivers are in their twenties or thirties. Caregivers have lower financial assets and higher levels of debt compared to those who don’t care for loved ones.

The Benefits of Cross-Generational Sharing and Communication

As the above statistics confirm, younger and older generations can face similar struggles navigating daily life, self-care, and the costs of caregiving.  Paying the rent, evaluating and choosing a health insurance plan—whether through an employer or a Medicare or Medicare Advantage plan—working and paying for, or providing, care can be challenging aspects of life.

Learning and sharing across generations to identify practical solutions to improve health, well-being, and financial stability can significantly reduce health and healthcare-related costs.

Steps All Generations Can Take to Effect Change Around Active and Healthy Aging

Knowing what education and knowledge to seek that impacts health and aging is the first step for generations to effect change around active and healthy aging in their families.

Watching a grandparent or parent struggle with health problems or financial matters often offers adult children a first peek at the importance of planning for health, healthcare, finances, and legal matters that affect family caregiving.

If you are new to caregiving, three programs offer an in-depth look: Caring for Aging Parents, estate planning specific to Power of Attorney, and Guardianship for caregivers of elderly loved ones with memory loss.

Additional resources for caregivers include the Caring Generation Podcast, with over 200 episodes that answer caregiver questions; the book The Caregiving Trap; and videos on caregiving expert Pamela D. Wilson’s YouTube Channel.

As learning styles differ across generations, some may prefer online courses, attending seminars, listening to podcasts, reading articles, searching social media, or watching YouTube videos.

However, one prefers to learn; below are three main topics to focus on, all critical components of creating a comprehensive plan for health, well-being, and aging to reduce caregiving costs.

Imagine how the face of caregiving might change when generations are healthier, more active, and financially savvy.

Less demand for public sector programs, health care providers, and health care services may level the playing field, making programs, providers, and services more cost-competitive and consumer-focused.

Today, consumers are constrained by program availability, limited providers, and high-cost, non-competitive services, which drive up the costs of caregiving. This factor makes it more critical for families to learn to navigate healthcare systems, providers, and programs.

1 Education and Knowledge: Health and Money

State governments control primary and secondary education. Few, if any, states mandate health and financial literacy education in primary or secondary education to help students gain practical life skills at an early age. Doing so is an obvious upstream opportunity to reduce future costs of caregiving and healthcare use.

However, a lack of available education does not mean that this knowledge cannot be gained. Older children who are working or in college can gain this knowledge and pass it along to younger siblings and their parents.

An example of this is an adult child in nursing school serving as a model for a sibling who is 12 years younger. This sibling shared information about healthy habits, saving money, and reinforced the importance of a college education.

In this particular family, one parent graduated from high school. The other did not. The oldest daughter applied herself in primary and secondary school. She was the first generation in this family to attend and graduate from college with a nursing degree.

2 Technology Skills and Communication

Generations today grew up with varying technologies. The older generations grew up with landlines, typewriters, and pay phones. Children today begin using computers as soon as they start school.

Because of these differences, communication styles vary. Older adults who may not have used computers at work may use a tablet or a mobile device.

Baby Boomers may prefer phone calls or in-person meetings, while Millennials prefer texting or instant messaging, and GenZ prefer share information through social media.

Virtual, Zoom, or FaceTime calls, which became more popular during COVID, can be an excellent way for parents to stay in touch with family members who may not live nearby.

These methods of communication are also a time-saving and effective way for adult children to check in on and actually see how their parents are doing. Identifying issues early can reduce the costs of caregiving related to adult children taking time off work to attend to care issues for elderly parents.

In addition, many medical practices offer virtual visits to address routine or non-urgent needs. Helping older adults more easily access needed services can improve health and well-being.

Access to Online Healthcare

Younger generations can use technology to assist parents in identifying healthcare benefits, accessing healthcare portals to schedule doctor appointments, receive test results, message a doctor or nurse, or pay healthcare bills online.  And, they can do the same activities for themselves.

Becoming more actively involved in accessing healthcare services can have an upstream benefit: learning about and evaluating available healthcare options and caregiver support programs.

Healthcare Research Can Improve Decision Making

Researching health topics such as heart disease or dementia, taking online courses on caregiving, watching videos to learn a new skill, and sharing this information with younger and older family generations can help individuals build knowledge, make better decisions, and improve health habits.

Additionally, learning about healthcare insurance programs, Medicare, and Medicaid is beneficial for family members, helping them plan ahead, evaluate and select plans, and use health benefits for regular check-ups and preventive care. Preventive care goes a long way toward reducing the costs of caregiving and stress for generational caregivers.

While younger generations may not have a primary care physician, selecting a doctor and scheduling an annual check-up are among the best preventive measures to achieve good health.

Early identification of health issues before they progress offers the opportunity to learn how to address them or prevent them from becoming more serious. For aging and older adults, regular medical care can help manage ongoing conditions and prevent them from becoming life-altering.

Through these experiences, families can learn together.

The Growth of Other Online Services

As more and more and more services expand online, including access to Medicare, health insurance offered through employers, health visit explanation of benefits, bank accounts, investment accounts, companies offering online bill paying, and shopping, the use of technology will be mandatory rather than optional.

This offers an upstream opportunity to organize health, financial, and legal matters online, where they can be shared with family members or a designated power-of-attorney agent. Information can be at hand when a parent experiences an unexpected health event and an adult child steps in to assist.

The Benefits of Going Online

Helping parents set up online access to check bank account balances and pay bills can be a time-saving way to ensure bills are paid.

Doing so can reduce the likelihood of late bill payments, especially if a parent begins to experience short-term memory loss or loses their organizational skills.

In many instances, talking to a real person at a company is no longer an option. Customer service requests, help requests, or complaints are limited to pressing buttons on a phone tree or online access.

This lack of personalization can limit access to services and programs for older adults who are not tech-savvy or who have hearing or vision difficulties. Participation in programs that can positively affect health can decrease the costs of caregiving.

In these instances, younger generations can assist and teach older family members how to use technology. Having discussions within families about avoiding online or telephone scams, deleting suspicious or phishing emails rather than opening them, and discussing other security risks on tablets, mobile devices, and computers are also very important.

3 Financial Management, Retirement Planning, Estate Planning

Financial management, retirement planning, and estate planning may not be topics discussed in primary or secondary education. These may be topics introduced when family members become employed and choose company benefits.

Without parents serving as role models for discussing these topics, how do children learn?

They can learn by talking with co-workers and obtaining information through their company’s human resources departments. Learning to budget and save money may be a more difficult topic if parents did not model or teach this skill.

As described above, some Gen Z and Millennials are still living with their parents or relying on them for financial support. This is one area where parents can improve by discussing work, careers, and education, or by finding another family member or friend to share their experiences.

Adult children can also seek out and contact financial planners who have the education and skills to discuss retirement planning, financial management, life insurance, and long-term care insurance needs. Caregiving experts can guide caregivers and their families on financial, legal, and health matters related to caregiving.

While estate planning may be more of a delayed topic, adult children may learn about its importance from friends or older family members who are caring for an aging parent or grandparent.

Family Meetings

The last step in helping generations reduce the long-term impact of caregiving and eldercare is to establish regular family meetings to share information and learn from one another.

If not always in person, these meetings can take place on Zoom or another platform.

The goal is for family members to share their research, suggest new topics, offer updates, and express concerns about working together to discuss the costs of caregiving for everyone in the family.

Hold meetings on a regular schedule so everyone in the family can plan to attend.

These meetings support family discussions across generations and help plan to avoid unexpected surprises. For example:

• If one sibling becomes too financially or personally dependent on parents, other siblings can offer support and make suggestions.
• If an elderly parent begins to experience health concerns, adult children can help schedule medical appointments and research options to address the issues.

Family members can also motivate others through their personal experiences and learning.

For example, joining a gym and becoming more physically fit, sharing a healthy recipe, discussing a financial investment, or sharing learning from a doctor’s visit about a health condition.

Additionally, sharing experiences gained through work, friends, or participation in social networks or groups can offer opportunities for personal and family growth.

Experiences gained by being with others in similar or different life situations are invaluable. Families will cease to feel that economic, educational, or social boundaries limit their abilities or identities.

A World of Possibilities for Family Caregivers

When families support each other in this manner across generations, the likelihood of feeling constricted by public-sector programs, healthcare provider control, or financial constraints diminishes because everyone’s skills and knowledge rise.

Individuals will be more able to adapt, persevere, and find creative solutions to issues that once may have seemed like stumbling blocks or limitations. They will also be able to inspire others in the family, young or old, that anything is possible.

If You Are Interested in Learning More about Managing Care in Your Family, Contact Pamela D Wilson for a 1:1 Virtual Elder Care Consultation.

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