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To sleep, perchance to dream – but where, and for how much? p2

5/2/2015 | Kaplin Stewart Blog

We are picking up the discussion about nursing home and home care expenses started in our April 17 post. It almost goes without saying that none of this care is getting any cheaper. The question for older individuals and families — or, for that matter, younger people putting together an estate plan — is how much will those costs increase between now and when they’re needed?

Genworth Financial Inc., an insurance company that sells, among other things, long-term care coverage, recently released a study comparing the costs of nursing home care, adult day care, assisted living facility care and home care. According to Genworth’s analysis, the cost of nursing home care has increased by 4 percent every year over the past five years, landing at a nationwide median of more than $91,000 a year for a private room.

Pennsylvania outpaces the national median. Nursing home care here increased 5 percent year-over-year. A private room now costs $113,150 (again, median) per year. In Philadelphia, it’s even higher: $127,750 annually.

Other care arrangements are less expensive, and the difference offers a good deal of food for thought. If your care will cost more than $125,000 a year in a nursing home, for example, you may want to talk with family and your health care team to determine if that level of care is really necessary. An assisted living facility in Philly would cost $58,626 annually; home-based care would cost a little less, and adult day care would run to about one-third the cost of assisted living.

In our April 17 post, we promised to talk about how people pay for these levels of care. Does insurance cover it? Does Medicare or Medicaid? We’ll tackle that in our next post.

Sources:

Mainline Media News, “Senior Care Notes: Paying for homecare,” Ed Rofi, April 8, 2015