Nursing Homes

As a national average, one day in a nursing home is estimated to cost more than $160. * The average stay is 2½ to 3 years, which could accumulate to more than $175,000 per stay. 13.8% of nursing home stays are longer than 5 years**, and the average stay is 8 years if you have Alzheimer's.

Home Health Care

Home health care can also be expensive. Custodial care, which is what the majority of people need at home, is the least expensive type of care that one could require.

The hourly rate for a home health aide increased to more than $18 in 2003 as a national average.* Suppose you found someone to provide care for you at the rate of only $15 per hour and you only needed care for 10 hours a day. That would still cost $150 per day; that's more than $54,000 per year!

Additional Home Health Care Cost Figures:
By 2005:  Estimated year that elder care will replace child care as the #1 dependent care need***
25.8 million: Number of people who care for ill or dependent loved ones in the United States, according to a study conducted by the Montefiore Medical Center in New York City and the United Hospital Fund.
24 billion: Number of hours of care those caregivers provide annually.
$196 billion: Amount the annual U.S. healthcare bill would increase if those caregivers were paid for their work.

*Met Life Nursing Home and Home Health Survey, 2003
**Department of Health and Human Services,1999
***Business First, 2000