▶ Watch Video: Costs put healthcare out of reach for many aging Americans
From his wheelchair, 71-year-old Ken Sternfeld spends several hours a week building his strength with the help of an aide.
The retired New York pharmacist and his wife, Ronnie Sternfeld, who is also medically challenged, get about 10 hours a day of in-home care, including meal preparation and help with cleaning.
“About a year-and-a-half of fighting, of filling out forms, waiting for answers, getting denied, having appeals, doing a fair hearing,” Ken Sternfeld told CBS News of the uphill battle the couple faced to have their healthcare costs covered by insurance before they were able to access Medicaid. “They wait until you give up. They want you to give up. I believe that.”
The Sternfelds say that before they accessed Medicaid funds, they depleted their retirement and savings accounts, paying out-of-pocket for care. Even now, their only source of income is Social Security, which covers rent and little else.
Ronnie Sternfeld says she “absolutely” worries about how they are going to pay their expenses.
“It’s extremely frustrating because we worked hard,” Ken Sternfeld adds.
Much of that frustration is due to a recent, rapid rise in long-term care costs. An AARP Public Policy Institute study released earlier this year found that those costs spiked nearly 50% over a five-year period from 2019 to 2024, outpacing incomes and hitting middle class families the hardest.
“So they’re being pushed into sort of two pathways, one of which is to forego care,” AARP President Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan said. “The other is to try to sort of parse together healthcare for themselves, which then often depletes most of their savings.”
That pathway often involves family caregivers. According to an AARP report, in 2024, family caregivers put in nearly 50 billion hours of care worth more than $1 trillion, all of it unpaid labor.
“We have caregivers who are working full-time jobs and also full time taking care of their loved one,” Minter-Jordan said. “And in many instances, this is unsustainable, and it is a wake-up call for our country.”
Nearly 70% of Americans will require some form of long-term care after age 65, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The AARP has been lobbying for a family caregiver tax credit for about a decade, but the measure remains stalled.
The Sternfelds say they are trying not to stress about their situation, which at times feels dire.
“What can you do about a reality?” said Ken Sternfeld. “I am alive … I believe I’m up today to make it a better day for somebody else.”