Believe me, we're just getting started.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act continues to shape the lives of employees, employers and benefits brokers — and will keep at it for years to come. And the debate about whether that's a good or bad thing will probably rage on long after (although it looks like public opinion might finally be shifting).
But one thing we won't have to worry about is the long-term care provision, which won't be needing any long-term care itself since its been neglected to the point of irrelevance.
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We should be so lucky. A new study from Northwestern Mutual reveals long-term care is more expensive than ever, just as we're living longer than ever.
The carrier's 2011 Cost of Long-Term Care study scraped data from August through November of last year from more than 4,000 assisted living facilities, nursing homes and home health care providers across the country, painting a depressingly expensive picture. For starters the study reveals "the national average daily rate for a single-occupancy, private nursing home room rings up to almost $90,000 a year. But it gets worse. Other highlights (or lowlights) touch on assisted living facilities where the average for a similar care totals more than $3,300 annually; and for home health care, you're looking at shelling out more than $20 an hour for a home health aide.
This sobering study reinforces the need for employees to be prepared. And for employers to look at voluntary long-term care offerings to make sure they're covered. But even that's not enough, since younger workers — who can most afford it — are the ones least likely to ever consider it.
It's not a pleasant conversation, but it's one benefits managers need to be having come enrollment season.
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