When you’re planning for your retirement there are a lot of things to take into consideration, and one of them is the high cost of long-term care. Each year the MetLife Mature Market Institute puts out a survey that examines the costs associated with long-term care, and the 2010 statistics were telling indeed. In the St. Louis area the average cost for a single day residing in a nursing home was $178, which is just about $65,000 per year. The charge for one month in the typical assisted-living community in the St. Louis area would run you $3863 on average in 2010, and that factors out to over $46,000 per year.
The next factor to consider is whether or not you will actually need long-term care at some point in the future. If you use statistics as your guide it would seem as though there is a significant possibility that you will in fact need to spend some time in an assisted-living facility and/or a nursing home. 40% of people who reach the age of 65 do need long-term care at some point, and one in four of people who are age 85 and older are living in nursing homes at any given time.
The unfortunate fact is that Medicare does not pay for long-term care. Medicaid does, but of course there are financial requirements. Many people are surprised to find out that they can qualify for Medicaid to pay for long-term care and still maintain ownership of their home, their car, and their personal possessions. There are some rather complicated rules that must be followed but Medicaid can be the solution to the high cost of long-term care. To find out if Medicaid planning makes sense for you, the best course of action would be to arrange for a consultation with an experienced elder law attorney.
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