Reactions to the Dying Broke series about the financial burden of long-term care in the United States resonated with thousands of readers. These readers assessed government and market failures that have drained American families’ lifetime savings, and also offered possible solutions. In more than 4,200 comments, readers shared their struggles in caring for spouses, older parents, and grandparents. Many expressed their anxiety about getting older and needing help to remain at home or in institutions like nursing homes or assisted-living facilities. Proposed policy changes included expanding the government’s payments for care and allowing more immigrants to stay in the country.
Readers blamed American for-profit healthcare and long-term care industries for depleting older people’s financial resources. They claimed that wealth transfer from the middle class and the poor to the owners of for-profit medical care was underwritten by the government. Other readers pointed to insurance policies that, despite limitations, had helped them pay for services. People’s concerns about different countries’ treatment of their older citizens were also expressed, with readers contrasting the care of older people in foreign countries with that in the United States.
They highlighted the fact that the United States spends less on long-term care as a portion of its gross domestic product than do most wealthy nations. Many readers mentioned problems with long-term care insurance policies, and their soaring costs. Some called for more immigrant workers to help address the chronic shortage of long-term care workers. Other readers proposed that the federal government should create a comprehensive national long-term care system, like in some other countries. Some called for a federal single-payer system, and said that people needed to take more responsibility by preparing for the expense of old age. Additionally, some readers condemned the country’s medical culture for pushing expensive surgeries and other procedures that do little to improve the quality of people’s few remaining years.