The price tag for anyone seeking long-term care – whether it’s you or for a loved one -isn’t getting any cheaper. Instead, it’s heading in the other direction. Specifically, in the Washington DC Metropolitan area, you can expect to pay $14,000 on average a month, climbing all the way to $168,000 a year.
A survey by Genworth showed that the price of private nursing home care is up 5.5 percent from 2016 to $97,455 per year. Meanwhile, a semi-private nursing home room costs 4.44 percent more than last year.
When you consider that 70% of people 65 and older will eventually need some long-term care, those numbers are daunting and leave many customers with few options for paying the higher costs.
The Genworth Survey
Genworth based its study on responses from more than 15,000 nursing homes, adult day care facilities, home care providers, and assisted living facilities. The study showed that nursing home costs are growing at a rapid rate:
The cost of a private nursing home room increased over 4% in 2016 when compared to 2017. The cost of a semi-private room is over 2% higher than it was in 2016.
The median rate of home health aide services is $22 an hour in 2017, up from $20 per hour in 2016.
The cost of adult day care rose from $68 per day to $70 per day.
Alaska has the highest price tag for nursing home care with an annual cost of a nursing home room of $292,000. Oklahoma is the most affordable state, with the median yearly cost of $63,510 per private room.
Why did the cost of nursing homes rise?
Experts suggest that there are several reasons for the upcoming price hikes, including an increasing demand for caregivers, a federal law that requires care workers to be paid the minimum wage and overtime pay, and an increase in the minimum wage in many areas of the country.
No matter what the reasons, long-term care costs have been on a steep rise since 2012. For families and others seeking nursing home care in the future, the expectation that nursing home costs will continue to rise is understandable.
Planning for the future is more important than ever when you consider the numbers generated by the Genworth survey. Mindy Felinton and the team at Felinton Elder Law and Estate Planning Centers is here to help you with comprehensive elder law and estate planning solutions.