Reviewing Long Term Care Costs By State

It is understandable why 89% of Americans over the age of 55 prefer to stay home should the time come that they would need long time care. Members of close-knit families find it hard to imagine being separated from their loved ones and admitted to a nursing home. Besides, with the continuous uproar on long term care costs by state, they think staying home and having their relatives to look after them is the best resort.

This would be the ideal setup had the cost of care been more affordable. Unfortunately, this remains a far fetched dream that is probably never going to be realized in this lifetime.

Although anybody can choose to receive care at home, the idea of relying solely on family members to assist you in the activities of daily living and household chores for say a good three-year or five-year period is nothing but selfishness.

It is normal for families to care for each other but not to the extent of requiring anybody to quit his or her job, or perhaps, to surrender their future plans just so they can be at your beck and call 24 hours a day.

What's more, nobody stays healthy and strong forever. So when your time is over, have you ever wondered how the person who took care of you for a lengthy period would go on with his life considering the fact that he has stopped planning it since he started providing you care?

Everybody has to plan his future health care needs. Even those professional nurses, caregivers and home health aides that we rely on for personal care will one day need somebody to take care of them. So, what more the wife, mother, husband, son, or sister who is currently feeding, bathing and dressing up a disabled elderly loved one at home?

There is no denying that people are currently comparing long term care costs by state, either for their own benefit or for their parents. Not all baby boomers over the age of 65 years old are conscious about the soaring cost of care in their place that is why it is often the children who are taking the initiative to plan their parents' future health care.

Since majority of today's elderly population prefer to receive home care than be placed in a community-based long term care (LTC) facility, their children are scouting for the most affordable home health aide.

Reports have it that Alaska, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Minnesota offer the most expensive home health care services. If you're living in any of these states, you should plan your retirement while you are in your 40s.

Do the math before deciding which type of LTC service to settle for. For instance, an elderly woman residing in Juneau, Alaska currently spends $60,632 a year for a home health aide, which is significantly bigger than $48,048 which a senior citizen in Los Angeles, CA is forking out annually for the same service.

If you're determined to stay at home even though you feel that you will require nursing care at some point in your life, you might end up spending more than what you planned. After all, when you were told to review long term care costs by state it does not follow that you should discount your personal health care needs.