Will Older Individuals Avoid Nursing Homes After the Pandemic?

In Canada, as in the United States, a large share of COVID deaths during the first wave occurred in nursing homes. As a result, the pandemic shed light on lax infection control practices and lack of staff in some nursing homes. In both countries, the extensive media coverage of these issues may have a lasting impact on older individuals’ choices of long-term care. That is, more people might decide to receive care in their own homes instead of entering a nursing home, even when COVID is no longer as serious a threat. If so, a related question is how such home care would be financed, given that both countries more readily subsidize nursing home care compared to home services. This brief, adapted from a recent study, assesses the reaction of Canadians to nursing homes in the wake of COVID. This assessment is based on an online survey of a representative sample of residents in Ontario and Québec who are ages 50-69. The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section provides background on nursing homes and COVID. The second section summarizes the survey methodology. The third section presents the results, which reveal that more than 70 percent of respondents are less inclined to enter a nursing home than before the pandemic; about one-quarter are willing to save more for home care services; and the vast majority favor increased government subsidies for home care, even if financed by higher taxes. The final section concludes that, given the broad similarities between Canada and the United States, the main results are likely applicable to older Americans as well.