Every person who is serious about the implementation of a plan for aging should take nursing home costs quite seriously. People often overlook the matter for two different reasons. For one, they assume that Medicare will pay for long-term care. Secondly, they think that it is unlikely that they will ever need nursing home care.
Both of the above notions are fallacies. Medicare is set up to handle rehabilitative care after an illness or an injury, but it does not pay for long-term custodial care.
With regard to the other misconception, in fact, most senior citizens will someday need help with their activities of daily living. The United States Department of Human Services tells us that 70 percent of people reaching the age of 65 will eventually need living assistance.
Nursing Home Costs
It is not easy to reach directly into your pocket to pay for nursing home care. Nursing homes are very expensive all around the country, but they are particularly expensive in certain states, and certain cities are exorbitantly expensive.
We practice law in California. Across the state as a whole, the median annual charge for a private room in a nursing home is $104,025 according to a survey that is being conducted by Genworth Financial. These figures are accurate at the present time, because the 2015 results were recently made available to the general public.
A semi-private room in Sacramento is not a whole lot less expensive. The median annual charge for this type of room is about $94,000.
In the Sacramento area, costs are considerably higher than the statewide averages. The median annual cost for a semi-private room in a nursing home in Sacramento is $94,535 at the present time. The figure for a private room is a whopping $150,836.
The survey is quite comprehensive. It also looks ahead toward the future to project cost increases. Over the next five years, Genworth Financial predicts a four percent increase for semi-private rooms in the Sacramento area, and a seven percent increase for private rooms.
Length of Stay
A government survey was conducted a while back to determine the average length of stay. The survey found that the average length of stay was two years and three months. Ten percent of people in nursing homes will reside in the facilities for at least five years. When you combine the cost of nursing home care with the length of stay that you could typically expect, you see that the expenses could be catastrophic.
Schedule a Consultation
There are solutions that exist if you are concerned about nursing home care costs. If you would like to discuss them with a licensed professional, contact us through this page to request a consultation: Sacramento CA Elder Law Attorneys.
- Protecting Your Assets in Retirement: Estate Planning Tips - March 27, 2023
- Estate Planning for Small Business Owners - March 25, 2023
- The Consequences of Not Having an Estate Plan - March 23, 2023
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.