The Staggering Cost of Care

The average cost of care runs $45,000 per year according to the American Council of Life Insurers, with a private room in a nursing home averaging $75,190 per year. Adult daycare runs about $50 per day. A licensed home health aide charges roughly $19 an hour – which adds up to $228 a day, or nearly $6,840 a month, at 12 hours of daily care. 

These costs don’t affect people at the margins. They hit the middle class directly, and they hit hard. Seventy percent of single nursing home patients spend themselves into poverty after only 13 weeks, according to a congressional report. Half of couples reach the poverty level within six months of one spouse entering a nursing home. Fifty-eight percent of Americans say they are not able to pay for the costs of long-term care at all. 

And don’t make the mistake of thinking this only affects the elderly. Forty percent of all long-term care patients are between the ages of 18 and 64. Accidents, injuries and serious illnesses happen at every stage of life. A care need doesn’t wait for retirement to arrive. 

Can you write a check for $4,000 today to pay for this month’s care? Could you write another one next month, and the month after that? That $4,000 comes in addition to your existing mortgage, car payments, groceries and everything else you’re already paying. For most people, the answer is no – and that’s exactly why long-term care planning matters.