The REAL Costs of Healthcare for Seniors

If you think you have some idea about the costs of senior healthcare…think again.

A new study has found that the real cost of senior care can be up to $493 a day. Nursing home costs can range from $5,400 to $12,000 a month. And the government pays for little or none of this.

If you only need in-home care, consider yourself lucky; it’s “only” $16-$26 per hour. Or, $150-$280 per day for live-in care.

Can you afford this?

Think Medicare will save you? Well, maybe…if you only need care for less than a hundred days. Medicaid may cover some of it – but you’ve got to go through stringent requirements, and a process that’ll put you through the ringer. And you could find yourself “spending down” your assets in the hopes of qualifying, only to be turned down – and broke!

Assisted-living can cost $2,000-$5,000 a month. And Continuing Care Retirement Communities require an average down payment of $250,000, and a $4,000 monthly rental fee.

I’ve been telling my clients for years that most of us fail to plan adequately for our long-term care needs as we age. I’ve been telling them, too, that if they can afford long-term care insurance – get it! Get it now, before the prices go up. Get a policy, if you can, that takes into account increasing prices as the years go by. Get a policy with a company that will be here in the future.

I know extra dollars are hard to come by these days, especially for Boomers and seniors. But it’s much better to pay a tolerable amount each month now than it is to drain your life savings (and your heirs’ inheritance) later on.

Long-term care insurance can be very confusing. But we can help.

At the Law Offices of Alice Reiter Feld & Associates, we practice Elder Law – and only Elder Law. Over the past 34 years, we’ve walked thousands of South Florida families through the long-term care maze. And we’ve been helping them, as well, with comprehensive estate planning, wills, trusts, powers of attorney, asset-protection plans, and assistance with Medicaid or the VA.

Getting long-term care needn’t be a frightening process. We can walk you through it. And we’re just a phone call away.