Forty-nine Illinois nursing homes closed between 2019 and 2022, according to the state's Department of Public Health; 2023 data is not yet available. In that same time period, six new facilities opened. The closures mean more than 2,500 nursing home beds have vanished.
Covid revealed some financial vulnerabilities of senior living facilities that had always been there but were ignored during a rush to open facilities and pocket profits while tax benefits and government subsidies were available. Facilities were under-staffed and employees were generally low-skilled and underpaid. One could fill up a facility almost as fast as one could fill a tank with reasonably priced petroleum products. Demographics didn’t help as aging seniors could help keep the beds full. This reminds me of other fundamentally unsustainable “benefits” (including pensions) that would eventually cost more than customers could afford to pay and than governments… Read more »
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Covid revealed some financial vulnerabilities of senior living facilities that had always been there but were ignored during a rush to open facilities and pocket profits while tax benefits and government subsidies were available. Facilities were under-staffed and employees were generally low-skilled and underpaid. One could fill up a facility almost as fast as one could fill a tank with reasonably priced petroleum products. Demographics didn’t help as aging seniors could help keep the beds full. This reminds me of other fundamentally unsustainable “benefits” (including pensions) that would eventually cost more than customers could afford to pay and than governments… Read more »