Long-term care costs are surging again and the most expensive option – a private nursing home room – may soon top $100,000 per year.
Growing labor expenses and sicker patients helped push the median cost of care that includes adult day care and assisted living communities up an average of 4.5 percent this year, according to a survey released Tuesday by Genworth Financial. That’s the second-highest increase since Genworth started its survey in 2004.
The cost of home health aide services climbed the most, rising 6 percent, to $21.50 an hour. Private nursing home care now costs more than $97,000 annually.
Many Americans don’t plan for expenses like these or understand them until they face them, said Joe Caldwell of the National Council on Aging, which is not tied to Genworth’s study.
“People don’t like to think about it and talk about it ahead of time, so they kind of put off planning and saving for it financially because they don’t think it’s going to happen to them,” he said.