That AARP pricing is pretty accurate for basic-level-of-care-run-of-the-mill nursing home at about $7-8k /month.
That's definitely correct pricing. I've visited a lot of rehab and assisted living centers in two states in the past few years, and anything that costs less is not a place you'd want to be.
This is an important thread, and a topic much on my mind. I managed my grandfather's care until his death in 2014, and moved my grandmother to California last year after a medical emergency. She is now in a very nice assisted living facility at just under $8k/month. I could write a book and that wouldn't be enough, but...
An important consideration is that *all* assisted living costs (including rent, meals - everything) are tax deductible as qualified medical expenses, in the current tax code. See IRS publication 502 for details. But, in brief, if you're admitted for a medical reason (vs. personal choice) or are chronically ill (an easy criteria for most elderly folks to hit), virtually all of your living expenses become a write off. This is also true for in-home care, and includes care provided by all sorts of caregivers, not just nurses.
My grandmother is as well positioned as can be (yes, I learned from her). At 87, she had a fulltime, high paying, college administration career in accounting and finance. She gets a pension of $70k/year, Social Security and minimum distributions, and still has about $500k in additional savings. She has Medicare and supplemental Blue Cross. And last year, her share of total medical expenses was over $76k. That's a heck of a drawdown rate without pension income continuing to appear.
My grandfather did not enter assisted living, but we did have a huge helping of home care. Getting that set up was interesting, because it was more cost effective (~$3-4k/month) and, I thought, higher quality in general. There seemed to be more competition: If you don't like one home care company, you can hire another, and do so more easily than you can switch facilities.
Both experiences have me in cold terror about aging in this country. I never thought I'd choose suicide upon one diagnosis or another but, after the past year, I absolutely will. Everyone is out to get elderly people's money, and the sheer scale and creativity around this industry (and it is an industry) is overwhelming and astonishing. Medicare fraud is rampant. Last year alone, I saved my grandmother at least $5k by fighting totally fraudulent bills and filing Medicare fraud complaints for companies, like physical therapy and rehab folks, who never showed. When I called to inquire, they blamed Grandma for forgetting...even though I was there waiting, too.
Stuff like this is constant, unending, and a total grind to stay on top of and monitor. Fraud IS the dominant elder care business model. If we had not already been FIRE, I would have had to quit my job just to manage and track everything, even though she's in the best facility there is. From the bills, to her taxes, to appointments, to actually getting her minimum distributions, is absolutely a part-time job every single week.
Financially, I have no idea what most of this country is going to do, after this generation of pension earners passes on, because the financial models of all of these facilities are pegged to pension income (per the director at Grandma's facility). Perhaps assume that folks sell houses worth over $1m to finance their care?
I have no answers, but $100k/year is a safe assumption and today's rates, and more in the future.
