About three in four Hawai'i residents are not confident they can afford the cost of nursing home care for even a year, according to an AARP Hawaii survey released yesterday.

The survey, based on 700 interviews with residents age 18 and older, also found that a quarter of Hawai'i residents say they or a family member needed long-term-care services in the past five years. About 40 percent expect to need such services for themselves or someone in their family during the next five years.

"The issue of long-term care has always been a critical one in Hawai'i," said AARP Hawaii state director Barbara Kim Stanton. "But what our 2006 survey shows is that it is even more acute."

Stanton said by 2020, one out of four Hawai'i residents will be at least 60 years old, and that residents 85 years old and older are among the fastest growing segments of the population. She said Hawai'i residents live about four years longer than people in other states.

AARP commissioned Virginia-based Woelfel Research to conduct the survey to gauge the need for financing long-term-care services in Hawai'i.

AARP said the average cost of a semi-private room in a Hawai'i nursing home is $239 daily and a private room is $262 a day. The survey, conducted during the last week of February, also found that 40 percent of Hawai'i residents are not confident they can afford a home health aide for a year. The average hourly rate for a home health aide is $19, AARP said.

Eighty percent of respondents said it's extremely or very important to have long-term care that would help them or a family member stay at home as long as possible.

"What we wanted to do is make sure legislators know they can't put off the problem; they need to act now," Stanton said. "And so what we're doing is raising the awareness that people are struggling and when you say we will look at it next year, for the person at home in that situation, every day matters, and that's the message that we want to send to the Legislature, to the community and to everybody. This problem is everybody's problem."

Lawmakers are considering legislation relating to long-term care, including providing a $1,000 tax credit to caregivers, and giving a tax credit to individuals and employers who purchase long-term-care insurance. But even supporters say those measures alone are not enough.

Almost two-thirds of those surveyed said the cost of long-term-care services should be shared between individuals and the government and were willing to contribute at least $10 a month to help support a state program.

Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a bill in 2003 that would have charged taxpayers $10 a month to fund a state long-term-care program that would have provided people who qualified for care with up to a year in cash benefits. The governor argued that a year of coverage was not sufficient but supported another part of the bill that would have provided a tax credit for purchasing private long-term-care insurance.

Gail and Eugene Imai know the struggles that many families face. Eugene's mother was in a skilled nursing facility following a massive stroke, and his father, who suffered from Alzheimer's, eventually needed to be in a nursing home as well. Both have since passed away, and the Imais have concerns about long-term-care issues for Gail's parents — her 80-year-old mother is caring for her father, who suffered a stroke 10 years ago.

"I'm praying AARP and everybody will get together to support any kind of legislation that would help at least take care of the economic aspects of this kind of situation that more and more of us are facing," Gail said. She said financial assistance is needed for home health aides and that there should also be more hospital beds.

Eugene also said policymakers need to keep in mind patients' quality of life.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.