"There will have to be some kind of dramatic shift in the ways things work," said Laurie Orlov, an analyst for the Phillips Center for Health and Well-being Aging Well Think Tank.

Why? Because not only is long-term care expensive, it is also not typically covered by health insurance. In the U.S., about 70 percent of the current population of those 65 and above will at some point need long-term care — defined as assistance over an extended time to manage conditions such as arthritis, a stroke or dementia. Long-term care can include assistance in your home, an assisted living facility or a nursing facility.

And the number of Americans who need that care will soon rise steeply: According to a study by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, the projected population in 2050 of individuals age 65 and above is 88.5 million — 20 percent of the total population at that time. That's an increase of 49.6 million from 2008, when the figures were 38.9 million people 65 and over, or 13 percent of the total population.

Even now, 9 million Americans receive long-term care services from family members and friends, at an estimated cost of $199 billion annually.

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Most European countries have begun to put in place mechanisms to fund long-term care. But only four countries worldwide — Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and South Korea — have long-term care insurance systems. Germany's fully covers the cost of care for six months.

Meanwhile, some countries — notably Ireland, Scotland, the U.K., and Japan — are aggressively researching technology-driven solutions.

Orlov said some countries are experimenting with what is called "tele-healthcare" — physicians' visits conducted via Skype or other Web-based technology. They are also using home monitoring technology — for example, a camera installed near a refrigerator to make sure the homeowner is eating. Japan is even experimenting with using robots to pick up and move bed-bound nursing home patients because there aren't enough young workers there to perform nursing and long-term care jobs.