REPORT: Long-Term Care Costs Continue to Increase
Long-term care continues to get more expensive in the U.S., the 2016 edition of Genworth Financial‘s Cost of Care Survey found.
The annual report, which collects data from 15,000 long-term care providers across the country, shows modest increases in the cost of home health aide services, assisted living facility care, and nursing home rooms.
The 2016 version of the Genworth report shows that costs of long-term care, particularly in nursing home settings, are growing at a slower rate compared with past years. The cost of adult day health care actually decreased between the 2015 and 2016 reports.
However, care continues to get more expensive across most settings:
- Homemaker Services — $20 median hourly rate; up 2.56 percent from 2015; five-year annual growth rate of 2.13 percent
- Home Health Aide Services — $20 median hourly rate; up 1.25 percent from 2015; five-year annual growth rate of 1.28 percent
- Adult Day Health Care — $68 median day rate; down 1.25 percent from 2015; five-year annual growth rate of 2.53 percent
- Assisted Living Facility — $3,628 median monthly rate; up 0.78 percent from 2015; five-year annual growth rate of 2.16 percent
- Nursing Home, Semi-Private Room — $225 median daily rate; up 2.27 percent from 2015; five-year annual growth rate of 3.12 percent
- Nursing Home, Private Room — $253 median daily rate; up 1.24 percent from 2015; five-year annual growth rate of 3.51 percent
A separate survey, released concurrently by Genworth, found that as many as four out of five Americans do not realize how expensive home care services can be, with the average American underestimating the cost by nearly 50 percent.
“Caregiving work is generally undervalued and invisible in our economy,” Caring Across Generations co-director Ai-jen Poo told Forbes in a May 10 article highlighting the survey.
Poo added that until very recently, home care workers were not even entitled to the basic wage protections of minimum wage and overtime pay. “As a society, we don’t view care work as ‘real work’ or consider it a valuable contribution,” she said.
— by Matthew Ozga
