2010 Long Term Care Costs In The United States

2010 Long Term Care Costs In The United States

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If only the price of long term care services had remained stable or eventually lower, then it could have not caused problem and frustration among millions of American seniors and the retiring baby boomers. Unfortunately, long term care costs surge higher that what everyone has expected, and it is now the reason why families are compelled to deplete their savings to save their ailing or old loved ones.

The Prudential Insurance Company of America recently conducted nationwide survey on the rates of home care and facilities including nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The report is a comparison between the 2004 and 2010 costs of care, which shows the staggering changes in the prices of long term care services within that time period. LTC prices have increased 4.7% to 6.6 per year since 2004, but the increment varies largely on the kind of services. The Consumer Price Index (refers to purchasing power and inflation rate) has gained 2.5 percent annually since 2004, which implies the CPI is low enough to stabilize the skyrocketing prices of long term care services.

Prudential Life teamed up with LifeCare to gather data from various facilities throughout 50 states and the District of Columbia. There were 576 nursing homes; 562 assisted living facilities, 576 home health care agencies that were surveyed for this study. There were 75 metropolitan areas interviewed for the completion of the project.

Results
The growing population of retiring baby boomers may drastically increase the long term care demand in the country over the next 20 years. The next two decades will produce approximately 71 million of seniors age 65 and older, which makes up the 20 percent of American population. The longer life expectancy among baby boomers makes the problem worse because most of 65-year-old baby boomers could expect 20 years or even more.

The longer life expectancy among baby boomers means higher demand for LTC services. There are about 70 percent of seniors older than 65 will need LTC services and more than 30 percent will need nursing home care sometime in the future.

The prices of LTC services gradually increased during the years when America had been facing an economic crunch over the last two years. Since 2008, the average costs of LTC services grew at small percentage; 2% on assisted living facilities and 14% on private nursing home rooms. The recession that hit America in 2008 to 2009 forced institutions or facilities to lower their rates, but more companies shut down after that move.

In 2010, private rooms in nursing homes amounted to $24, equivalent to $90, 115 annually. Semi-private rooms grew to about 15% with average of $215 per day or $78,899 annually. Home health care grew 5% from 2006 to 2008. Home health aides have average hourly rates of $21 per hour, while hourly rates of licensed practical nurses rose to 17%.

Assisted living facilities have also swelled but at lower increment versus nursing and home care. These facilities climbed up to 2% in the past two years, with $2,930/ month or $35,160 a year. The states in the Northeast have the highest rates among LTC services, while Southeast regions recorded much lower rates.

About the Author:
Annika Myers is a professional writer of LTC Global for Complete Long Term Care - A resource facility where you can find everything you need to know about Long Term Care Costs including reliable long term care insurance quotes by state, great articles and resources on costs, care, facilities, quotes and much more.



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