Costly Care

If you or your parents need long-term care, prepare to pay steeply:

• The average cost of a private room in a nursing home is $203, or $74,000 a year, according to a MetLife survey. In areas such as Stamford, Connecticut, the average cost is over $125,000 a year.
• Another MetLife survey put the average cost of assisted living at nearly $35,000 a year.
• For home care, home health aides receive $19 an hour, on average. At, say, four hours a day, that’s $76 per day: almost $28,000 a year.

To avoid spending such large sums out-of-pocket, you can buy long-term care (LTC) insurance. A good policy will pay if you have difficulty performing two or more activities of daily living. Such activities might include eating, bathing, moving around, and using the bathroom.

An LTC policy also should cover care in case of cognitive impairment such as Alzheimer’s. Policies are available through the Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program and also through other insurance companies, so shop carefully.