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National Average Cost of a Nursing Home Room Tops $83,000 a Year

11/18/2010

Nursing home and assisted living rates rose significantly from 2009 to 2010, according to the 2010 MetLife Market Survey of Long-Term Care Costs. Private room nursing home rates rose 4.6 percent to $83,585 a year or $229 a day, while assisted living facility costs climbed 5.2 percent on average to $39,516 a year or $3,293 a month.



The average cost of home health care aides and adult day care were unchanged, after having jumped about 5 percent the year before. Home care aides still average $21 per hour and adult day care services remain at an average $67 per day.



The survey also reports on the cost of a semi-private room in a nursing home, which increased 3.5 percent to $205 a day, or $74,825 a year. The cost of a semi-private room in an Alzheimer's wing actually dropped, from an average of $75,920 to an average of $75,190 annually.



Once again, the highest rates for a private nursing home room in 2010 were found in Alaska, where the cost is now $687 a day on average. The lowest rates were found in Louisiana (with the exception of Baton Rouge and the Shreveport area), at $138 a day.



The cost of assisted living was the highest in the Washington, D.C., area, at $5,231 a month and the lowest in Arkansas (except for Little Rock) at $2,073 a month. Average home health care aide services ranged from a high of $30 an hour in Rochester, Minnesota, to $14 and hour in the Shreveport area of Louisana. Adult day care services were highest in Vermont at an average of $140 a day and lowest in the Montgomery, Alabama, area, at $31 a day.



Here in Rochester, NY, we see nursing home costs mostly between $350/day to $400/day, depending on the type of skilled care needed. What is clear, is that the cost of care continues to climb and, more and more, exceeds one's ability to pay.



For the full 2010 report, including listings of average long-term care costs in selected cities, click here. (The report is available in PDF format. If you do not have the free PDF reader installed on your computer, download it here.)

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