For 10yrs, I supported 1-3 agencies that owned/ran group homes for developmentally disabled adults.
These included homes for clients who were non-ambulatory, clients who had profound health issues and one home for dd-so. Besides living and healthcare expenses, the agencies had regulatory overhead imposed by 3 different governing agencies.
Even with all of this, the clients had lives with daily offsite activities, jobs, public events, theme parks, etc.
The per-client budgets of these group homes were tiny compared to nursing homes. They were funded by client SS disability payments, supplemented by some modest public funding.
These homes where founded and administered by boards made up of the client's families. Importantly, they were non-profit; they lacked the massive overhead that comes with shareholder obligations and executive salaries+perks.
They've been providing superior care for over 4 decades. After I left, they began to experience a persistent risk of funding cuts. These were driven by a major hospital chain executive who became governor and then state senator.
Baumol effect. TVs[1] are unrealistically cheap. This means that more money is chasing less automatable services. There is no technology that makes caregiving 100x more labor efficient. More money chasing the same supply means prices rise until demand reaches equilibrium. No amount of deregulation can increase the labor efficiency of caregiving to match gains in goods production.
The most visible difference is nursing homes are owned by publicly traded entities, who come with massive overhead of shareholder obligations and executive salaries.
Publicly traded entities which are components of many pension funds. The boomers essentially took out a loan against themselves, and now it's due, with interest to boot.
There's some schadenfreude seeing the boomers complain about getting the enshittification treatment they themselves got rich off.
The same line boomers enjoyed riding on while their property and other investments went up massively without any effort on their part, at the expense of subsequent generations.
Now, they're getting a taste of their own medicine as someone else (private equity in this case) wants to ride the line going up and even just robbing subsequent generations isn't enough to pay for it.
Certainly privately owned ones skim a lot off the top to pay shareholders and bonuses, but the reality is that the cost of caregiving is almost entirely labor and rent, and those things do not benefit from efficiency gains, so the cost of service just goes up forever because of Baumol's cost disease.
Realistically the only way to stabilize the price of caregiving is to automate the hell out of it, like Japan is trying to do. It's a rather dystopian thought that the only way senior care won't bankrupt us is if we have robots do it all, but what can you do.
There is a Melbourne start-up called Andromeda, which makes playful robots for the elderly. https://andromedarobotics.ai/
I always thought this would be a market Japan would dominate with their aging population and early development in robotics, but I don't think I'm seeing that.
The award-winning ABC series ‘Old People’s Home for 4Year Olds’ and 'Old People's Home for Teenagers' were not only heart-warming shows. A new Griffith University study found the series have been instrumental in public recognition of the social and health benefits of intergenerational practice.
There's a lot I can say about older populations and their abilities despite being old, right now I'm have to step out for the day for several hours, possibly more, so I'll just leave this one approach above that's been tried and works well.
Also, the elder population aren't homogenous by any means, there are a good number that can assist others with meals, gardens, etc.
These included homes for clients who were non-ambulatory, clients who had profound health issues and one home for dd-so. Besides living and healthcare expenses, the agencies had regulatory overhead imposed by 3 different governing agencies.
Even with all of this, the clients had lives with daily offsite activities, jobs, public events, theme parks, etc.
The per-client budgets of these group homes were tiny compared to nursing homes. They were funded by client SS disability payments, supplemented by some modest public funding.
These homes where founded and administered by boards made up of the client's families. Importantly, they were non-profit; they lacked the massive overhead that comes with shareholder obligations and executive salaries+perks.
They've been providing superior care for over 4 decades. After I left, they began to experience a persistent risk of funding cuts. These were driven by a major hospital chain executive who became governor and then state senator.
2. And other goods mass manufactured.
There's some schadenfreude seeing the boomers complain about getting the enshittification treatment they themselves got rich off.
A shareholder relationship is parasitical and exploitive by it's nature, as defined by Dodge Brothers v. Ford.
Making pension funds feed on that relationship - that is whatever that is. I couldn't call it a necessary evil because it's by design.
The same line boomers enjoyed riding on while their property and other investments went up massively without any effort on their part, at the expense of subsequent generations.
Now, they're getting a taste of their own medicine as someone else (private equity in this case) wants to ride the line going up and even just robbing subsequent generations isn't enough to pay for it.
Realistically the only way to stabilize the price of caregiving is to automate the hell out of it, like Japan is trying to do. It's a rather dystopian thought that the only way senior care won't bankrupt us is if we have robots do it all, but what can you do.
I always thought this would be a market Japan would dominate with their aging population and early development in robotics, but I don't think I'm seeing that.
~ https://iview.abc.net.au/show/old-people-s-home-for-4-year-o...
There's a lot I can say about older populations and their abilities despite being old, right now I'm have to step out for the day for several hours, possibly more, so I'll just leave this one approach above that's been tried and works well.
Also, the elder population aren't homogenous by any means, there are a good number that can assist others with meals, gardens, etc.