What percentage of non-elderly American adults can’t take care of themselves

[Anonymous]

I have a brother like this. Not sure why, but he always quits jobs or gets fired. Patents give him a house to live in, a car, a phone, insurance and pay all bills and give spending money. It probably costs them $4-$5k a month. He just gave up and now doesn’t even seem to leave the house. Yes, I’m bitter. Lots of families seem to have a brother or uncle like this. So, my guess it is about 5% of the population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd probably start by looking at Medicaid waiver enrollments for various populations and assume similar proportions of people with the relevant conditions in states that don't have waivers for those same populations. Then make an assumption about how many more people are on waiver waitlists. There's probably data or anecdotes about that somewhere.

Choose the waivers that meet your criteria. I'm not clear on whether you're counting physical/medical limitations or just mental health. Examples of waiver populations: ventilator dependent, mental health, substance abuse, institutionalized, HIV/AIDs, etc. Some of these populations may be more independent than others, but I believe most need a lot of support.

Then if including medical, I'd see how many under 65 people have Medicare for ESRD. Make an assumption for any overlap with waiver populations.

Then I'd keep thinking some more....

I think it’s the ones with no waivers who are so hard to quantify. I think of people in my own family who are partially functional but without support of others would be homeless and maybe dead. Issues include intellectual disability, mental health issues and drug abuse. On the outside things look ok because we take care of our own. But once the older generation dies, well that’s a scary thought.