Who Will Take Care of the Elderly? [View all]

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http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/09/who-will-take-care-of-americas-elderly/380147/

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If life were fair, Marsha Schumacher, 69, wouldn't have to worry about affording care in retirement. Schumacher left the workforce in 1982 to look after both her son, who'd begun manifesting symptoms of bipolar disorder at five years of age, and her husband, who was exhibiting similar behaviors. Today she and her husband are separated, and while Schumacher takes great pride and satisfaction in her son's flourishing career and marriage, her own future looks less bright.

"I stopped work because my priority was to do everything I could so that my son could succeed in life," Schumacher told me in a back room at the Center for Community Change in Washington D.C. "I stopped work not realizing at that point what it would do to me in retirement."

She has no pension, and her Social Security benefits are roughly half of what they would have been had she stayed in the workforce until retirement age.

Uncommonly poised with brilliant blue eyes, Schumacher had come to Washington from her home state of Montana as part of the Center's push to raise national awareness around an issue that's become increasingly pressing: caregiving. Americans are expected to see a shortage of caregivers in the coming decades, with a dearth of family and friends available to tend to the baby-boom generation as it ages, according to the most recent data from the American Association of Retired Persons. If projections hold, by 2030 there will be just four potential caregivers for every person 80 or older, down from more than seven in 2010.