[Becky]

If you get dementia and need 10+ years in a nursing home, you’re looking at 6-9k a month. So up to about 100k a year. In order to have Medicaid cover it, you must essentially be indigent.

Is everyone saving enough to pay for this or investing in long term care insurance?

[Jay]

The US average for a skilled nursing facility is $108k/year. Men will on average use 2.2 years of care, women 3.7. The challenge is that the cost of long term care is going up by 5% annually.

The bottom line is that we all need a plan for long term care. If you have less than $500k net worth, chances are you will end up using Medicaid to cover care (after you spend out everything).

If you have over $3 million, you may be able to self insure. Stand alone long-term care insurance policies can help people in the middle.

[Glenna]

Personally, I hope Oregon will pass a law or update our assisted suicide law to include dementia. Or save money to head to Switzerland before I am totally incompetent and chose assisted suicide overseas.

[Dina]

At this point my plan is to save enough to cover any eldercare that we will need. It’s a lot of money, for sure. We are starting to get an idea of what long term care for alzheimers will cost since a family member has started to use services. Thankfully they have been paying into long term care insurance for many years.

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