Currently the costs of staying in a nursing home is one of the primary elder law issues of the day. The MetLife Mature Market Institute does research into the subject annually and according to their findings nursing home costs rose by 4.4% in 2011.

In 2010 the average charge for a single day in a private room in a nursing home in America was $229. Last year that figure rose to $239. If you get out a calculator and multiply this number by the 365 you’re looking at a figure of $87,235 annually.

This continues an upward trend because the cost of nursing home care rose by a similar percentage in 2010 over 2009 numbers.

This is a lot of money to have to lay out late in your life, in after-tax dollars no less. It should be noted that Medicare does not pay for an extended stay in a nursing home so you will have to make other arrangements.

The costs as they stand at present are clearly quite considerable. But when you think about the future it is rather disturbing. If nursing home costs were to rise by around 4% to 5% each year for the next 20 or 30 years while the baby boomer generation ages we could be looking at a truly exorbitant sum of money.

When you are planning for the future you should keep these costs in mind. The best way to explore your options with regard to addressing long-term care expenses would be to sit down and discuss your unique situation with a licensed Oklahoma City elder law attorney.

Larry Parman
Author, President and Founding Attorney
Parman & Easterday