In last week’s Fridays with Fisher, I discussed one of the conversations that occurred during the Asset Care 2024 rollout meetings in New Jersey. The discussion related to inflation and including it for an older client (closer to 70). Today, I want to share another conversation from the meetings.
Before I get to that, I would like to share that OneAmerica Financial and Amada Senior Care announced a collaboration intended to improve the long-term care experience for both policyholders and their caregivers. This aligns with the Asset Care 2024 policy feature focused on informal care.
As we are all aware, most people would prefer to “age at home” and receive their care at home. You see, informal care and aging at home is more than throwing cash at a family and telling them that they can spend it how they please. There is responsibility, accountability, and commitment required. This is where Asset Care 2024 policy can make a difference. As part of the policy, the Caregiver Consultant benefit (at no charge) can provide monthly in-person or virtual coaching to the informal caregiver.
And. this is where Amada Senior Care can play a role. They can help assist the informal caregiver with support, training, or even provide encouragement and reinforcement of what they are doing helping their loved one. There is more to what Amada Senior Care can do for the family (as part of the OneAmerica collaboration or individually) – you should reach out to your local franchise to learn more about them.
As I mentioned earlier, another interesting conversation arose at the Asset Care 2024 launch meetings. This one was a direct result of a presentation made by Amada Senior Care and it was focused directly on policyholders’ receiving care.
The comment was simple, “most people want to stay at home for their care but that is really expensive.” Then the statistic of home care was shared … a year of 24 x 7 care in the northeast costs today around $300,000.
Some people were surprised at that number and pushed back. But here it is folks, in cost of care surveys by a variety of carriers and organizations, 27×7 care is more costly than a private room of a nursing facility. So, in the interest of science (well math), I will share the math with you.
Average cost of home health care = $35/hr. (some surveys were higher; others were lower)
Hours in a day = 24
Days in a month = 30 (every month but February has at least 30 days)
$35 x 24 hours = $840 per day
$840 x 30 days = $25,200 per month
$25,200 x 12 months = $302,400 annually
Now, remember this … the hourly rate is an average and does not represent the hourly cost of care for someone such as a nurse whose hourly rate would be greater. Seeing the numbers is a little sobering.
Think about it for a minute – we say that we want to stay at home, but can we afford to make that happen? I’d say not without a plan that includes insurance or some form of leverage.
Learn more about how OneAmerica can help, please contact my internal Kelley Hilliard at kelleyhilliard.isp@oneamerica.com or call her at (844) 623-4251.
Fridays with Fisher 