Catastrophic Acute and Long-term Care Costs: Risks Faced by Disabled Elderly Persons

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).