Home Care is Wanted in Massachusetts

Not a lot of elderly Bay Staters are experiencing Massachusetts long term care at home because the state hardly has available in-home care providers.

More than 900,000 residents of Massachusetts are over 65 years old and requiring long term care (LTC) in the comforts of their homes, but unfortunately only a handful of them have the privilege to receive this kind of service.

Majority of the state’s seniors have to move to an institutional long term care (LTC) facility such as a nursing home once their health condition deteriorates and they start to need 24-hour care. While the elderly folks of other states are given the privilege to age in place as this is, after all, the preference of today’s aging population, residents of Massachusetts have yet to see the arrival of new in-home care providers.

According to a study about the LTC industry of Massachusetts, home health aides and workers in community-based LTC facilities have the lowest salaries that is why many of them have opted to leave and look for greener pastures elsewhere.

Nursing home employees are far better earners than those caregivers that provide home and community-based care. New statistics, however, show that a big number of nursing homes in Massachusetts, especially those accepting Medicaid payments, are going to need additional staff since the reduction of Medicaid reimbursement rates has discouraged many skilled nurses from carrying on their duties.

Eight years from now, demographers say the senior population of Massachusetts from age 65 and older will require extensive health care services. Although home care is the top choice of most residents, they do not discount the possibility of entering a nursing home facility. It’s just that they want to be given the opportunity to stay longer in their own homes with their families before they are moved to a nursing facility.

More Massachusetts Long Term Care Issues

Apart from scarcity of LTC providers, another problem the State of Massachusetts has to deal with is the growing number of its uninsured residents.

As the cost of care continues to soar and the elderly population seeking LTC seems to grow at an imperceptible speed, it is impossible for the government to shoulder every individual’s LTC expenses.

According to financial planners and health care professionals, you will find Massachusetts on the list of the most expensive states for long term care. Families with loved ones in nursing homes are paying out $339 daily on average. Eighteen years from now the cost of care is expected to quadruple and everyone receiving LTC in nursing homes should be ready to fork out $1,356 every day.

Everybody in Massachusetts is encouraged to secure an effective LTC plan that will grant them access to satisfactory LTC while protecting their assets which took them years to acquire. Without a concrete Massachusetts long term care plan, it will only take a year or less for your money to be wiped out by the high costs of care.

Discuss the future with your family and contact a licensed long term care insurance (LTCI) agent to provide you with options which you can start looking into.