Sharing cost of nursing home stay. (public and private funding for nursing homes) (Health Care Trends)

As Americans live longer, the expense of long-term care on strapped state budgets is becoming enormous. Today, more than half of the people over 75 require some form of long-term care and nearly half of those stay in nursing homes -- at an average cost of $30,000 per year.

The already-strained Medicaid program is picking up more and more of that cost. In the decade between 1980 and 1990, the number of Ohioans in nursing homes who received Medicaid almost doubled.

Private insurance, meanwhile, has been only a minor player in paying for nursing home stays, but an innovative plan combining public and private funding for long-term care could help save senior citizens …