A recent study revealed that long-term care costs vary widely by location. The study claims the national median cost of private nursing home this year is $87,170 in Ohio, but only $57,487 in Oklahoma. The stark difference centers on supply and demand as well as the ability to pay for these types of services. The most forgotten piece of a person’s retirement is probably paying for long-term care despite the fact that long-term support and services continue to rise faster than inflation. Moreover, about 2/3 of the elderly will need long-term care of some kind. Gentworth, the nation’s biggest underwriter for long-term care policies, took data from almost 15,000 providers of long-term care service to compile the study. The survey includes an interactive map that shows specific service costs by state: http://bit.ly/PYlZ9R.
See Long-Term Care: Why Your Location Really Matters, Reuters, Apr. 23, 2014.
Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.
