Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep:201:1-21.
doi: 10.1016/j.jebo.2022.06.034. Epub 2022 Jul 22.

Nursing home aversion post-pandemic: Implications for savings and long-term care policy

Bertrand Achou  1 , Philippe De Donder  2 , Franca Glenzer  3 , Minjoon Lee  4 , Marie-Louise Leroux  5   6   7
Affiliations

Nursing home aversion post-pandemic: Implications for savings and long-term care policy

Bertrand Achou et al. J Econ Behav Organ. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

COVID-19 outbreaks at nursing homes during the recent pandemic have received ample media coverage and may have lasting negative impacts on individuals' perception of nursing homes. We argue that this could have sizable and persistent implications for savings and long-term care policies. Our theoretical model predicts that higher nursing home aversion should induce higher savings and stronger support for policies subsidizing home care. Based on a survey of Canadians aged 50 to 69, we document that higher nursing home aversion is widespread: 72% of respondents are less inclined to enter a nursing home because of the pandemic. Consistent with our model, we find that these respondents are more likely to have higher intended savings for old age because of the pandemic. We also find that they are more likely to strongly support home care subsidies.

Keywords: Long-term care; Nursing home; Pandemic risk; Public policy; Savings.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Partition of the population when the condition in Equation (11) is satisfied.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Long-term care preferences, and support for home care subsidy.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Agreement with home care subsidy by change in inclination to go to a nursing home. Notes: This figure uses sampling weights.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Long-term care preferences and mapping to the categories of the support for HC subsidy.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Change in agreement with home care subsidy by change in inclination to go to a nursing home. Notes: This figure uses sampling weights.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Achou, B., 2020. Housing in Medicaid: Should it Really Change?. Retirement and Savings Institute Working Paper, No. 3. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20200178&&from=f.
    1. Ameriks J., Briggs J.S., Caplin A., Shapiro M.D., Tonetti C. Long-term-care insurance puzzle: modeling and measurement. Journal of Political Economy. 2020;128:2375–2451.
    1. Ameriks J., Caplin A., Laufer S., Van Nieuwerburgh S. The joy of giving or assisted living? using strategic surveys to separate public care aversion from bequest motives. Journal of Finance. 2011;66:519–561.
    1. Antràs P., Redding S., Rossi-Hansberg E. Globalization and pandemics. NBER Working Paper. 2020:27840.
    1. Commissaire à la Santé et au Bien-être Les Personnes de 75 ans et plus en attente d’une Place d’Hébergement en CHSLD. Bulletin numéro. 2017:16.

LinkOut - more resources