Who will pay for a nursing home if you need one? This question comes up for plenty of American families for whom at-home care is cost prohibitive or beyond the scope of what family members can provide. A lack of planning for this financial burden can be harmful to retirement savings. One other option to close the gap is long term care insurance.
The Genworth 2020 Cost of Care study looked at the average cost of what it takes to pay for nursing home care. The median cost on a national level for a private room in a nursing home was over $100,000 in that year, according to the study. This was a significant increase from the first survey results tagged in 2004.
If you are planning to live to consider an assisted living facility as your option, this is expensive too, although not to the same tune of a private room in a nursing home. The average cost for an assisted living facility was over $51,000 while home care at 44 hours per week came in at around $55,000 per year. The recent study that brought together many different results in this area identified that just over 10% of adults have long term care insurance.
Most who do not have long term care insurance will need to self-pay or qualify for Medicaid. There are complex strategies required to do this and it is best to partner with an experienced elder lawyer to protect yourself in this situation. Schedule a consultation with a Pasadena area estate planning lawyer today to learn more.
