Long Term Care Costs in Your State

Whether you intend to retire in your state of residence or move to another part of the country, you have to study long term care costs by state. No matter where you decide to settle down after your retirement you cannot escape the high cost of care. Financial advisors and long term care (LTC) specialists have projected a fourfold increase in the cost of care come 2030 so if you are clueless about the figures of LTC facilities in your area, you will get the shock of your life should the time come that you would require care. Long term care covers a wide range of services. It can start with custodial care and gradually elevate to medical care depending on the patient’s state of health. Now your LTC needs will dictate the price that you have to pay so before these come, start planning for it. For example, if you’re a resident of Missouri and you’re expecting to enter a nursing home someday due to genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s, you’ll be paying almost $53,000 for a year’s stay in this institutional LTC facility. Meanwhile, a friend of yours who resides in Washington can expect to pay out as much as $108,588 per year for a private nursing home room should she end up in one someday. Notice the big difference? That explains why it is important to compare LTC costs between states if you plan to move. If you don’t acknowledge the fact that other states may be offering more expensive LTC services and you suddenly move out of your state of residence, you risk depleting your assets in less than a year. Long Term Care Costs by State In order to make the analysis of LTC costs by state less strenuous, you can gather the states that constitute one specific region in the country before comparing their LTC costs. For example, New York and New Jersey are both situated in the Northeastern region of the country and the difference between their annual nursing home rates is only close to $5,500. On the other hand, if you will compare the LTC costs of these U.S. states with that of Alaska the difference would be $100,000. Financial advisors say the cost of nursing homes around the country is increasing faster than the national average. What’s more, it was found out that 40% of baby boomers will enter this type of LTC facility at some point in their lives but how can they possibly afford it when majority of them remain unprepared for tomorrow’s cost of care? Alaskans face the greatest challenge in line with nursing home rates since they are expected to pay out $911,040 every year once LTC costs begin to quadruple in 2030. It’s not only nursing homes that are expensive in this particular state as the annual rate of a home health aide here is already the equivalent of a private nursing home room in Texas. Familiarization with long term care costs by state will make it easier for you to plan your LTC. If you want to touch on the cost of care in the specific areas in each of the U.S. states, you can contact the department of insurance as they can provide you with comprehensive information.