15 Cheapest States for Nursing Home Care: 2024

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Slideshow May 06, 2024 at 01:32 PM

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Some 10,000 baby boomers will turn 65 every day until 2030, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and a majority of them are likely to need long-term care services and support at some point. Genworth's latest Cost of Care Survey found that nursing home costs in 2023 increased by more than 4% year over year. The survey, conducted in partnership with Genworth Financial's wholly owned subsidiary CareScout, showed that the national annual median cost of a semi-private room in a skilled nursing facility rose to $104,000, up 4.4%, while the cost of a private room in a nursing home increased by 4.9% to $116,800. Assisted living facility costs increased by a slower 1.4% rate between 2022 and 2023 to an annual national median cost of $64,200 per year, but increased by a total of 18.9% from 2021 to 2023, according to Jamala Arland, president and chief executive of Genworth U.S. Life Insurance. Arland said the slower pace was likely because inflation and housing market trends have stabilized with the end of the pandemic. In contrast, costs for home health aide and homemaker services surged last year. The 2023 survey found that the cost of a home health aide, whose services include "hands-on" personal assistance with activities such as bathing, dressing and eating, increased by 10% year over year, to an annual median cost of $75,500, based on 44 hours per week for 52 weeks. Homemaker services, which include assistance with "hands-off" tasks such as cooking, cleaning and running errands, increased by 7.1% to an annual median cost of $68,600.

Paying for Long-Term Care

Clients looking to pay for long-term care have a few options, Genworth points out. These include self-funding, annuities with a medical care facility waiver, and long-term care insurance. Medicaid can also be used to pay for long-term care, but it comes with strict income and asset restrictions, and some facilities do not accept it. Genworth, which helped create the modern U.S. market for long-term care insurance, stopped issuing policies after its mistaken assumptions about the products led to financial troubles. But it's getting back into the space: The firm announced last week that CareScout plans to begin issuing new LTCI policies in 2025.

Methodology

Genworth based its research more than 11,000 surveys of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, adult day health facilities and home care providers completed from during the fourth quarter. The survey collected rates for 2023 and 2022, and included 429 regions based on the U.S. Office of Management and Budget's metropolitan statistical areas. For our state-by-state nursing home care ranking, we collected state-level data using Genworth's search tool. Some data points were unavailable for some states. We averaged the annual costs for a nursing home bed in private and semi-private rooms. See the gallery for the 12 least expensive states for nursing home care, according to Genworth. -- Liana Roberts and Allison Bell contributed to this report.

Michael S. Fischer

Katie Rass

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