Assisted living, home care costs climb: study

[deadparrot]

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Older Americans in need of care face sharp spikes in the cost of increasingly popular assisted living quarters and home health aides, according to a study.

The average price tag for a private one-bedroom unit in an assisted living facility rose 7 percent in 2006 to about $33,000 per year, compared with a 5 percent rise in 2005, according to a survey by insurer Genworth Financial Inc..

The average hourly rate for most home health aides climbed 19 percent to $22.15 per hour, compared with a 2 percent rise in 2005, the study found.

The average cost for a private room in a nursing home, by contrast, rose 2 percent to about $71,000 in 2006, after rising 6 percent in 2005.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060327/us_nm/eldercare_dc

[Warpy]

1. The efficiency apartment I found in an assisted living facility

for my pop would have been $36,000 a year if he had completed rehab and been back to the baseline before his heart attack. It was a NICE facility that didn't treat the residents like children. They even had a BAR. It was more like a mid scale resort.

I wish he'd made it. He might have enjoyed it.

[RedEarth]

2. What's alarming, but not unexpected, about those numbers

is that if assisted living continues to increase at 7%/yr. per year in 10 yrs. the cost will be $66,000/yr, and then in 20 yrs it will be $132,000/yr. Hit those figures by 2, 3, 4 yrs and your talking some real serious money. Do the same thing will nursing care and it becomes down right frightening.