Long-term Care Costs

"According to a National Alliance for Caregiving/Evercare survey, the average out-of-pocket expense for caregivers is $5,531 a year." aarp.org/bulletin June 2012

That actually seems low to me, and it does not include lost wages.  Which for some of us amounts to thousands of dollars a year.  $60,000 to $100,000 perhaps.  In a separate article in the same bulletin, they estimate that long-term care can cost as much as $80,000 a year.  We are fortunate --- in my planning and against Dwane's opposition, to have purchased long-term care insurance long enough ago that it was affordable.  With rising costs of end-care, long-term care insurance premiums have risen dramatically.  "For people 55-65, prices of new policies are up an average of 30 to 50 percent compared with five years ago." aarp.org/bulletin June 2012.  The author of the article, Jane Bryant Quinn, recommends that if a person can possibly afford it:  to buy or renew long-term care insurance.  It is too late to consider purchasing long-term care insurance for the person for whom you provide caregiving, but it is not too late for you to consider it for yourself.  We are fortunate, in my buying long-term care insurance and in my careful stewardship of our financial resources, to provide for Dwane's care with our own money and resources.  Sadly, when I am in assisted living facilities, it seems to me that it might - just might, make a difference in how the care receiver is treated -- whether the person is private pay or paid for through a government program (which pays less).