Family caregivers face financial struggles from recession

From The Orlando Sentinel:

Looking back, Tom Brinkmoeller is glad he and his wife took that day in 1969 — two years after they were married — to look at their financial situation.

“We said to ourselves, ‘Holy cow!’ ” Brinkmoeller recalled. “I wasn’t doing a very good job at keeping the books, and she took over from there.”

Forty years later, Linda’s financial-planning abilities have been put to the test. (The couple is pictured.)

Brinkmoeller left his job as marketing director for Orlando Opera to care full time for Linda after she suffered a stroke in 1999.

To pay her medical bills and their other living expenses, they rely on her Social Security disability payments, have dipped into their 401(k) savings and are planning to take out a reverse mortgage on their home in an Orlando suburb.

A new study shows family caregivers such as Brinkmoeller are facing increased financial and emotional hardships as they struggle to continue providing care to loved ones with chronic illnesses or disabilities.

The survey of more than 1,000 people — conducted in February and March by Evercare, a national care-coordination program of UnitedHealthcare, and the nonprofit National Alliance for Caregiving — reveals that more than 40 percent of caregivers have taken a pay cut or have been forced to work fewer hours as a result of the recession.

Fifteen percent have lost their jobs as a result of the downturn. And nearly half of all caregivers have exhausted their savings.

Linda’s stroke was not the last of the Brinkmoellers’ health troubles. Last year, she was diagnosed with breast and ovarian cancer. And four months ago, Tom was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Meanwhile, the economy continued its downward spiral.

Brinkmoeller says all the financial planning in the world wouldn’t have helped him prepare for these unexpected turn of events.

“The recession has had a huge impact on caregivers, who represent a $375 billion annual value in the care they provide,” said Heidi Wold, executive director of Evercare Florida. “In Florida, they represent $20 million in care costs that would otherwise be passed on to the health-care system.”

Nationwide, there are approximately 44 million family caregivers, according to a 2008 AARP report.

“We’re finding that many caregivers are delaying any big money decisions, which includes putting their loved one in an assisted-living facility,” said Mary Ellen Grant, executive director of Share the Care, an Orlando-based nonprofit. “People are more likely to move people they are caring for into their own homes now, because they can’t afford otherwise.”

In fact, 21 percent of caregivers, according to the Evercare survey, say they and their loved ones have moved in together to cut costs.

Many are struggling to cover expenses and meet their loved ones’ basic needs, while putting their own financial futures at risk.

Brinkmoeller may be making the ultimate sacrifice to care for his wife by putting his own health at risk.

Unable to pay for both his wife’s medical treatment and his own, he is putting off getting medical attention for his prostate cancer until next April, when he turns 65 and qualifies for Medicare.

But, he said, even if he could afford to pay all the medical bills, he would probably still put off his own treatment so he could continue tending to his wife, who has limited mobility and speech.

“I’m maintaining a house, myself and the person I care for,” Tom Brinkmoeller said. “I’m not complaining. It’s the best job I ever had.”