The High Costs of Long Term Care

By: Jenny Nielsen

Today, the number of seniors needing long term care is almost thrice the rate it was a decade ago. What makes long term care burdensome is its exorbitant cost that forces individuals and their families to exhaust their savings or assets to shoulder the price of long term care services. How could a person with low or median salary afford a yearly expense of around $75,000 on nursing home and $29/ hour on home service? It is also excruciating that when you develop chronic illness or prolong your condition, your options become much limited.

Long Term Care Costs

The costs of long term care services depend on the type of care, the amount of care you need, the provider you use, and where you live. However always expect the rates to be higher than what you have expected. There’s no exception, whether you are rich or poor the rates for this care are always daunting.

The Genworth Financial, the country’s financial giant, provided report on the 2010’s cost of Care Survey. The summary of the findings are as follows:

Licensed Homemaker Services - This care is often refers to “Personal Care Assistant” or “Companions.” The national median hourly rate for this is $18, which is about 3 percent increase since 2009.

Licensed Home Health Aide Services – This type provides assistance in daily activities such as bathing, dressing, and transferring. Its national median hourly rate is $19. It increases over 2.7 percent since 2009.

Adult Day Health Care – It is a community-based support and services for adults, but not administered for 24 hours. This year the median daily rate for adult health care is $60, an increase of 12 percent in 2009.

Assisted Living Facility (One bedroom/ Single Occupancy) – Many adults these days prefer assisted living because can enjoy much dignified living in this setting than in nursing homes. This provides personal care as well as medical care for adults who lost the ability of living independently. Its recent median monthly rate is $3,185 that increases to over 12 percent since 2009.

Nursing Home (Semi Private) – In 2008, the average annual cost of semi-private nursing home costs $60,000. This year the national median daily rate is $185 or annual rate of $67,525.

Nursing Home (Private) – This year the national median daily rate is $206 or equivalent to $73,336 annual rate. There’s 4.5 percent increase during the five-year annual growth.

Now, after knowing how costly long term care services are, you might be glued on your seat thinking how you can manage to pay for yourself or for a loved one. A year or few years stay in nursing home will surely deplete all your savings that will saddle your family to debt and poverty.

How can I pay for Long term care?

Long term care insurance is the only feasible way to offset the high costs of LTC, but take the costs of premiums seriously. With LTCi, you won’t be urged to dwindle your assets in exchange for LTC services because your benefits considerably compensate the high costs of care. Another reason why it is a sound investment is due to the unavailability of financing alternatives and, although we have Medicaid and Medicare, the coverage for the two does not necessarily pays out well.

Article Source: http://yourfinance.co.za