What Does Long-Term Care Cost?

The wave of long term care has garnered concern and challenged millions of American seniors and the baby boomer generation. According to Genworth Financial, about two-thirds of Americans age 65 and older will need long term care in chosen facilities such as adult day care, nursing home, assisted living facility, and home. Long term expenses largely exhaust lifetime savings and overall affect many families.

One of the most important factors in long-term care planning is deciding on how much you are willing to pay for the services.  Long term care is seriously expensive that can deplete your assets to nil and, contrary to what many people expect, the Medicare and Medicaid programs do not necessarily cover the entire expenditures. These two government programs target the poor who have less means of funding their own care.

Paying long term care costs out of your personal savings can be devastating. You might have kept money for your nest eggs and worked your entire life to provide the best for your family and for the next generation. However, with the costs of long term care that could go around $750,000 a year, all the tears and sweat you have put on all your investments will suddenly vanish once you are confronted with debilitating sickness or disability that would require long term care. Let’s say you have enough money to endure the costs of care, but don’t you think your resources would suffice if the care drags on too long?  Think about it – without long term care insurance, the money that could have been used for your children’s education or the family’s dream house would just go in the hoard of nursing homes.

To prepare for the costs of long-term care, you have to know the rates of services in your area, what government programs you are eligible for and the areas they cover, what private financing options will work for you.

Long term care offers vast range of services based on the needs of the elderly and people with disabilities. The mainstream is the personal care, or assistance in daily living activities such as bathing, dressing, toileting, and walking. However, nursing home care is the most common setting covered by private insurance companies because this is the most expensive.

There is no such thing as “one size fits all” type of care for everyone because individuals have different conditions that require some extent or degree of care. The costs are significantly affected by the type and amount of care you need, the provider you use, and the state where you live.  The states have different rates on nursing homes, particularly those in the metropolitan areas. The community programs or adult day services have per-day rate. Many care facilities like nursing homes and assisted living facilities charge extra fees aside from the daily room rates.  Here are the average long term care costs in the United States in 2009:

• $198 per day  for a semi-private room in a nursing home
• $219 per day  for a private room in a nursing home
• $3,131 per month  for care in a one-bedroom unit in an assisted living facility
• $21 per hour for a Home Health Aide
• $19 per hour for a Homemaker services
• $67 per day for care in an Adult Day Health Care Center