In the study, the facilities are broken down into three categories: assisted living facility, nursing home(semi-private room) and nursing home (private room). For this article, we are just focusing on nursing home stays in a semi-private room. Nationwide, the average nursing home costs $200 a day. This figure has increased 3.63% in 2011, and over the next five years it is expected to grow 4.5%.
Across the United States, it looks like this trend stays true for each state, with some regions being more expensive than others:
- The North East has some of the most expensive care. In Massachusetts a nursing home stay costs $322 a day, and $117,530 a year.
- The cost of care in the West Coast is cheaper than the North East, but is still above the national average. In California a nursing home stay costs $224 a day, and $81,760 a year.
- Nursing homes in the South are slightly above the national average.
- In Florida, a nursing home stay costs $215 a day, and $78,475 a year
- The Midwest also is slightly below the national average, with a nursing home in Indiana costing $187 a day, and $68,255 a year.
- The most expensive nursing homes can be found in Alaska, with a nursing home costing $273,750 a year.
- The cheapest nursing homes can be found in Texas with nursing homes costing $47,450 a year.
What does this mean for caregivers? Already, more and more family members are fulfilling the role of caregiver due to the cost of healthcare. With the costs of facility focused care expected to increase at an average of $15,300 a year, more and more family members will become caregivers because facility based care is just too unaffordable.
You can compare costs in your state and others at Genworth’s website, here