The Genworth Cost of Care Survey results are in for 2018! Genworth has been a leader in long term care services for over 145 years and has produced the Cost of Care Survey for the past 15 years. The survey is designed to give you the financial big picture when planning for current or future retirement care needs. Within, you can see average costs as well as projected costs for care giving services in each state. We wanted to help you compare those costs with what it would cost for similar and better services at Daystar Retirement Village.
It's important to understand a few points before looking at the numbers. First of all, in home care typically consists of two components: homemaker services and adult home health care. So when a senior who is aging in place who initially only needed help with cleaning and other homemaking services has declining health, their in-home cost of care could double when they need to hire an aide to assist with medical needs. With assisted living, your loved one will benefit from both home-making services and adult health care services, without having to write two different checks.
The other point to consider is when assessing assisted living options you should remember it is all inclusive in regards to housing. This means the total cost will replace your home taxes, insurance, utilities, and most if not all of the other expenses associated with home ownership.
This post will focus on the cost of senior care in the Seattle area; if you'd like to compare costs in other states you may access the full survey to see the differences in cost throughout the country.
Average Annual Cost of Senior Care in Washington
In 2018 the average cost of homemaker services and home health aide services in Washington state was $64,064 each, based on a 44 hour work week. If you need both services full time your average cost would be roughly $128,000; if you only need one service 22 hours a week the annual cost would be roughly $32,000 for in-home care.
This is important because you will most likely start with part time assistance and add hours and services as your needs require. Both services are projected to see a five year inflation of four to five percent, so if you need more assistance in the future, you can expect the cost to increase.
In contrast, the average annual cost of assisted living in the Seattle area in 2018 was $69,000 and the five year inflation projection is the same at five percent. You can view the comparison below:
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Avg. Annual In-Home Care Costs |
Avg. Annual Assisted Living Costs in Washington |
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$128,000 |
$69,000 |
View the average annual independent living costs at Daystar.
Since assisted living communities include homemaking services as well as health care you can see the substantial savings; note that many assisted living campuses also offer several tiers of care. This means you can stay in your assisted living apartment independently with a higher level of care than you had when being cared for at home
Planning for Retirement Living
Although you or your parent may be aging in place with some help from family members it's important to plan for the future. The average caregiver stays in that role for four years; only 15% give care for 10 years or more. A full 73% of family caregivers also hold jobs and face extreme stress and other long term health deterioration, so it's smart planning to know your options if aging in place becomes too much to handle.
Check with your Medicare and insurance coverage to see what options you have for paying long term care expenses, and make a long term plan that includes best and worst case scenarios as well as adjustments for inflation. That way you'll have a solid understanding of your options if you decide to move to an assisted living community.
