The assisted living model of care enjoys some of the highest customer satisfaction rates of any industry, improves the quality of life of its residents and preserves vital public health resources
Argentum, the voice of America’s senior living communities, today released a new report, The Value of Assisted Living for America in conjunction with the association’s annual Public Policy Institute in Washington, DC.
“This industry-leading report makes clear the critical role that assisted living plays in caring our nation’s seniors, in offering significantly lower costs, improved quality of life, better health outcomes, and reduced health care costs for public programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ care,” James Balda, Argentum president and chief executive officer. “Roughly 1.4 million seniors already choose to call assisted living their home, and as our nation grows older with 11,200 Americans turning age 65 every day, we must make critical investments now to meet this demand, and assisted living, as the most cost-effective care option, must be part of that solution.”
The report offers a menu of policy solutions to help support assisted living in the coming years as more Americans seek care. These include: improving access to care for veterans by streamlining the Aid and Attendance program and expanding the recently-enacted Elizabeth Dole Act’s assisted living pilot program; enacting common-sense legislative solutions like the Caring for Seniors Act to address workforce and affordability challenges; addressing isolation and promoting socialization among seniors by enacting the Care Across Generations Act to co-locate childcare centers with long-term care communities; promoting tax measures as part of comprehensive tax reform legislation; supporting foreign-born workforce programs; strengthening long-term care insurance; and increasing reimbursements from public programs to increase accessibility to care.
“Argentum stands ready to work with the new Trump Administration and Congress to enact common-sense and cost-effective solutions to support our aging nation,” Balda said. “We urge policymakers to advance solutions that will support Americans in choosing right care for their needs, and to do this, we must increase access and affordability of assisted living and address workforce shortages.”
Among the report’s findings include:
Every day, approximately 11,200 Americans turn 65. According to a 2023 Census Bureau report, the median age of the population increased from 30.0 in 1980 to 38.9 in 2022, with one-third (17) of states now having a median age over 40.
The population of Americans aged 85 and older—the group that typically requires the most care—will increase from 1.95% of the population in 2022 to 2.48% by 2030 and explode to 22.77% by the year 2050.
The holistic model of assisted living results in consistently high levels of resident satisfaction, equaling or exceeding that of many other industries. Based on national surveys, 90% of senior residents report high satisfaction with their care and communities, 99% indicate they feel safe in their communities, 91% feel safer than living at home, and 85% of families report high value in their loved one’s community.
A 2024 U.S. News & World Report survey of older Americans and their families found that nearly all of the respondents (99%) said they felt safe at their senior living community, with more than 2 in 3 respondents (67%) responding they always felt safe at their senior living community. Further, nearly all respondents (98%) said they trusted the staff at their senior living community to care for their well-being. Most respondents were happy with their choice and 94% said they had made friends since moving into their senior living community. More than 4 in 5 respondents (86%) did not regret moving into their senior living community.
According to the 2024 J.D. Power Senior Living Satisfaction Survey, assisted living communities received a satisfaction score of 855 (on a 1,000-point scale), up 18 points from the prior year, and higher in comparison to the travel and hospitality industries. The increase is driven by improvements in satisfaction with the price paid for services for services received (+24 points); community staff (+19); community buildings and grounds (+17); and effective problem resolution.
A University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging found that adults aged 50 to 80 who live alone report higher rates of social isolation than those who live with others. This is in line with a national survey of more than 130,000 assisted living residents, which found that just 14.3% of senior living residents reported being lonely, compared to 29.9% of seniors who live alone.
The gap between what Americans have saved for retirement and what they need has grown significantly—$28 trillion in 2015 and projected to reach $137 trillion by 2050.
By 2040 more than 20 million workers will be needed across long-term care, with total employment projected to reach almost 8.3 million, an increase of some 2.5 million jobs—or 42.1%—from 2021. Among these positions include a need for more than 12 million home health and personal care aides, more than 1 million nurses between RNs and LPNs, more than 2 million nurse assistants, more than 1 million in food service, more than 300,000 in housekeeping, and more than 700,000 in office and administration.
There is not nearly enough supply of senior housing to meet these care needs. The National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC) estimates that approximately 881,000 additional units of assisted living inventory will be needed to serve seniors by 2030.
Estimates suggest that the development cost associated with needed production of assisted living will exceed $1 trillion by 2050. Insufficient investment in development will dramatically limit access to quality living options for some seniors and make existing options more expensive for all.
Comments