Catastrophic acute and long-term care costs: risks faced by disabled elderly persons

Abstract

This article presents an empirical analysis of the extent to which acute and long-term care cause disabled elderly persons to incur catastrophic costs. We found that the proportion of those people whose out-of-pocket costs exceed 20% of income rises from 20% (when only acute care costs are measured) to 30% (when long-term care costs are included). © 1993 The Gerontological Society of America.