Key Long-Term Care Costs Increase More Than 5% from 2004; Nursing Home Costs Average $203 Per Day in U.S., Home Health Care is $19 Per Hour, Companion Care is $17 Per Hour, 2005 MetLife Mature Market Institute Survey Reports.

Publication: Business Wire

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Business Wire

WESTPORT, Conn. -- The average daily cost of a private room in a nursing home in the United States is $203 per day or $74,095 annually, according to the annual MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home & Home Care Costs, conducted by the company's Mature Market Institute(R). The cost represents an increase from last year's $192 of 5.7%. The highest rates, once again, were reported in Alaska where the cost is $531 per day. The lowest were in the Shreveport area of Louisiana at $115.

The study found that the cost of a home health care aide averaged $19 per hour nationally, an increase of $1 or 5.5%. For the first time in 2005, the MetLife study reports on homemaker/companion care which averages $17 per hour. The lowest costs for both home health care aides and homemaker companions are $17 and $12 per hour in Shreveport, Louisiana. The highest cost for a home health care aide is Vermont at $31. Homemaker/companions cost the most in Rochester, Minnesota at $23 per hour.

"The rise in these long-term care costs of 5% and more constitute a crisis for many people who have not made the necessary financial preparations," said Sandra Timmermann, Ed.D., director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute and a gerontologist. "As we age, the more likely we...

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