Long Term Care Costs: How High Will They Go?
When you start to get serious about planning for the latter stages of your life it is important to educate yourself with regard to the expenses that you may be faced with. It is natural for your first thought to be that your elder years will simply be more of the same from a financial perspective and perhaps require even less resources as your desires wane and you settle into a slower paced lifestyle.
This may or may not be the case but it is important to make preparations for any and all eventualities, and with this in mind it is a good idea to be apprised of the rising costs of long-term care here in the United States.
A very good resource for people who like to keep their fingers on the pulse of long-term care trends in this country is the annual report that is issued by the MetLife Mature Market Institute. The statistics for 2010 reveal some astounding facts that are quite relevant to anyone who is preparing for the possibility of long-term care.
Last year the average cost for a year in a private room in a nursing home reached $83,585, which is a 4.6% increase over the 2009 national average of $79,935. It is worthwhile to interject the fact that the average length of stay is about 2 1/2 years, so when you do the math this is a pretty hefty end-of-life expense.
The cost of a stay in an assisted living facility rose by an even higher percentage. In 2009 it cost an average of $3,131 a month to reside in an assisted-living facility community, and this factors out to $37,572 per year. In 2010 this number rose by 5.2% to $3,293 a month or $39,516 annually.
Industry insiders expect these figures to continue to increase, so if you’re planning for a possible stay in a long-term care facility in a couple of decades the cost could be staggering. This is something to keep in mind as you’re planning for your retirement, and it is certainly a matter to discuss with your elder law attorney who may be able to provide you with a viable solution to this looming financial challenge.
