
The cost of long-term, in-home care is greatly underestimated, says a new study from insurance holding company Genworth Financial. In fact, most Americans underestimate the cost by close to 50 percent.
Furthermore, four out of five adults have an unrealistic expectation of the costs of home health care -- a hands-on, non-medical home care option that is more popular than both nursing homes and assisted living facilities. About 30 percent of Americans think home health care costs are under $417 a month, but Genworth's figures indicate that the true expense is around $3,861 per month for an in-home aide, or $3,813 per month for homemaker care, which entails household tasks like cleaning and errands. That's about nine times the expected cost.
That gap in expectations could have tangible effects on thousands of Americans. According to 2015 figures from The Institute for Healthcare Innovation, roughly 10,000 Americans are turning 65 every day -- more than doubling the number of retirees who will require long-term care by 2050. And about 70 percent of America's seniors will need some type of long-term care the group said; today, more than 45 million people are caring for an elderly family member.
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Compounding the problem is the cost of long-term care insurance, which can now top $90,000 a year. About 4.8 million people were covered by long-term care policies in 2014, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Experts say premiums for new long-term care insurance policies have risen so high they're out of reach for the middle class,
The Genworth study also found that nursing homes are by far the priciest option for long-term care, with a private room costing an average of more than $92,000 annually, up 1.2 percent from a year ago. A semi-private room runs north of $82,000, 2.3 percent higher than last year.
The national median cost of a home-health aide is also up, totaling more than $46,000, an increase of 1.25 percent. Homemaker services cost nearly $46,000 a 2.6 percent increase, and the national median cost of assisted living hovers around $44,000, an 0.8 percent jump.
Adult day care, at $17,680, was the only category measures in which costs fell, down 1.25 percent from 2015.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse