Analyzing the 2023 Cost of Care Survey: Trends in Long-Term Care Rate Increases

On Tuesday, the Genworth 2023 Cost of Care Survey was released. Year-over-year rate increases in long-term care/senior living ranged from 1% to 10%, depending on the setting (SNF, Assisted Living, etc.). The report is available here: Genworth Cost of Care 2023

The report is interesting though in some ways, a bit misleading as data is nationalized yet, experientially, each state and each region is different.  In response to the generalization of information, Genworth does provide a website where a user can access the data compiled on a state level.  The site URL is here: https://www.genworth.com/aging-and-you/finances/cost-of-care.html/

Key findings from the report are,

• Assisted Living (ALF) costs increased an average of 19% between 2021 and 2023 but only 1.4% between 2022 and 2023. The national median cost (annual) for a one-bedroom unit in an ALF is $64,200. 
• The national median annual cost for a nursing home private room is $116,800 and for a semi-private room, the annual cost is $104,025. That’s an increase since 2022 of 4.92% and 4.40%, respectively.
• The median daily cost for adult day care increased by 5.56% since from 2022 to $95 per day.
• Non-Medicare (non-medical) home care services saw large jumps from 2022 to 2023.  A homemaker (cooking, cleaning, errands) jumped 7.14%, from $28 to $30 per hour.  A home health aide (hands-on care such as dressing, hygiene, bathing but no medical services) increased by 10% from $30 to $33 per hour. This reflects costs from a non-Medicare licensed agency.  Note: These costs are typically higher in urban regions and accessing agencies with sufficient staff for consistent engagement is quite difficult today.

Per Genworth and the report’s survey respondents, labor scarcity (costs) and supply cost increases via inflation were equal contributors to the increases. Worker shortages drove more inflation in home care, adult day care and nursing homes (more reliant on numbers of caregivers) where supply and commodity inflation (energy, food, etc.) drove more increases in Assisted Living.

Back in January, I wrote a related post partially titled “Dying Broke”. The post was about the rising costs of senior living and senior care.  Anyone who wants to reference the data in that post, including the Genworth 2021 Cost of Care Survey (accessible in the post), the link is here: https://rhislop3.com/2024/01/03/wednesday-feature-dying-broke/   Putting the data from both reports, side-by-side is an interesting exercise.