Aging baby boomers raise the risk of a long-term-care crisis in the U.S.

When the oldest baby boomers begin turning 80 in 2025, there will be a growing wave of people who need more support and services, and the burden will be heaviest for their children.

“Advances in technology and public health have allowed people to live longer in a condition of frailty, and we haven’t developed a long-term care system to keep up with that,” said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow focused on health care at the Urban Institute.

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College estimates that about 55% of Americans will have low to moderate LTC needs and 25% will have “the type of severe needs that most people dread.”