Cost of Care Varies by State
The cost of care varies based on your state of residence or the state you plan to receive care. For example, the annual cost for home care in Alaska is $60,000 (according to 2015 statistics). In comparison, a year of home care in Texas costs $45,000.
Take into consideration the location where you or a loved one resides, or where care will be received in the future. Use our easy cost of care map to learn about the cost of care in each state.
Remember, these rates show the current cost of care. When planning for the future, costs will increase due to inflation. As a general rule, assume a 1% increase for home health care, a 2% increase for assisted living facilities and a 4% increase for nursing homes.
How Do You Want to Receive Care?
The top three locations to receive long term care are in your own home (home health care), in an assisted living facility, or in a nursing home. Additional options may be available in your area such as respite care and adult day care centers.
How or where you or a loved one receives care can vary in cost. For example, in the state of Oregon, the following are the 2015 average annual rates for care:
|
Oregon 2015 Average Annual Cost of Care |
|
| Home Health Care | $51,457 |
| Assisted Living Facility | $47,831 |
| Nursing Home | $105,387 |
As you can see, home health care offers the flexibility to receive care in your home, but you may pay more for it than assisted living (depending on the level of care needed).
Nursing homes provide the highest level of care and cost over twice as much as home health care or assisted living care.
Additional Care May Cost Extra
These rates typically do not include additional assistance for activities of daily living (ADL’s) in assisted living or nursing home facilities. Though some facilities may be “all-inclusive,” add-on care services may be available for additional fees. When searching for facility care, it’s important to understand all the costs involved.
Similarly, overnight home health care or around-the-clock care will cost more than 2-4 hours during the day. A person may require less care in the beginning and progressively increase as time goes on, requiring more assistance for an additional cost.
What’s Next?
Learn more about the options and rates in your area by calling a few home health care companies or facilities and learning about their rates. Ask for recommendations from family or friends and read reviews online to find a caring facility or home care provider with fair rates.
Many providers of long term care insurance offer some sort of care coordination with their plans. This means you and your family gain access to an expert who can help you find the proper care setting, develop an individualized plan of care and help arrange for long term care services. This feature can be used by the policyholder to help uninsured family members as well.
Interested in an easy way to pay for care? Learn more about long term care insurance and how it can guard your assets and protect your family from a long term care event.
LTC Consumer is an independent, free online service to help consumers understand what long term care insurance is, how it works, and how to evaluate coverage options. Our mission is to provide an educational, no-pressure resource for learning about long term care planning, with the opportunity to speak with specialists who can help them.
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