The cost of long-term care services increased across all provider types, and did so more substantially for certain settings, according to Genworth's latest Cost of Care Survey, conducted in partnership with CareScout, a wholly owned subsidiary of Genworth Financial.  Nursing home costs rose more than 4% from a year earlier, according to the survey. And a quick departure from that trend seems unlikely. As a recent House Ways and Means Committee hearing made clear, the U.S. is in the grip of a nurse shortage to which there is no end in sight, even as baby boomers are turning 65 in record numbers. While in-home services tend to be far cheaper, costs for home health aide and homemaker services rose faster — 10% and 7.1% respectively, Genworth reported, blaming inflation and the shortage of skilled care workers. "Understanding long-term care options and the costs associated with care are critical first steps toward being prepared for whatever you want your aging journey to look like," Jamala Arland, president and chief executive of Genworth U.S. Life Insurance, said in a statement.  "That was true when we started this body of research and is even more true as the Cost of Care Survey celebrates its 20th anniversary this year." Genworth's research is based on more than 11,000 surveys of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, adult day health facilities and home care providers completed from September to December. 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.

The Rising Cost of Long-Term Care

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, again based on 44 hours per week for 52 weeks. Genworth's survey showed that the national annual median cost of a semi-private room in a skilled nursing facility rose to $104,000, an increase of 4.4%, while the cost of a private room in a nursing home increased by 4.9% to $116,800. Assisted living facility rates increased by 1.4% to an annual national median cost of $64,200 per year. "As we look at this year's data, costs are up, but not as drastically as in previous years, especially assisted living facilities, which only increased 1.4% from 2022 to 2023, but a total of 18.9% from 2021 to 2023," Arland said.  She said this was likely because inflation and housing market trends have stabilized with the end of the pandemic.  "With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day until 2030, and seven out of 10 of them likely to need long-term care services and support at some point, there is increased demand for skilled workers in the long-term care space," she said.

Methodology

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 most expensive states for nursing home care, according to Genworth. -- Liana Roberts contributed to this report.

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