Why consider long-term care planning? As people age, there are many expenses that they and their family can be facing. This includes the costs related to long-term care.
How much such care will cost is very much dependent on family circumstances. It is affected by a range of factors, including a person’s particular care needs and what particular care facilities and services he or she has chosen.
However, one can get a general picture of the cost levels of long-term care here in Pennsylvania from some statistics that were released by Genworth in October. This data includes estimates of the median costs of various types of long-term care in the state. These medians are:
- $121,363 a year for a private nursing home room
- $115,340 a year for a semi-private nursing home room
- $45,000 a year for assisted living housing
- $65 a day for adult day care
- $22.63 an hour for a home health aide
- $22 an hour for a personal care aide
How does this compare to the rest of the country? Nursing home costs in Pennsylvania exceed national medians – by 21% for a private room and 29% for a semi-private room. Additionally, the median cost for home health care aides and personal care aides is slightly higher here. Meanwhile, the median price of assisted living housing and adult day care in Pennsylvania is lower than the national figures.
As a note, both in the U.S. and in Pennsylvania, long-term care costs have generally been trending up in recent years, which is why long-term care planning can be so important.
As a person’s individual situation has major impacts on what his or her long-term care needs are and what the costs of meeting such needs would be, so too can it affect what sorts of long-term care planning measures would most help a person to cover these costs and further the goal of protecting the family’s finances. Skilled elder law attorneys can help individuals and their families find long-term care planning solutions well-suited to their own needs and circumstances.