GREENSBORO, N.C. — A study from Lincoln Financial Group (NYSE: LNC) placed North Carolina among the median for health care costs in aging populations.
The Radnor, Pennsylvania-based firm with about 1,600 employees in the Triad found that of Americans 65 and older, half will require some kind of long-term care in their lifetimes.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Aging and Adult Services projects the state’s population of people over 65 will balloon in the next 20 years – from 16 percent in 2017 to 21 percent in 2037.
That's more than 1 million seniors, more than double the population today.
As of 2018, the division said that 82 percent of seniors over 65 had at least one chronic illness, while 55 percent had more than one.
So with the rising costs of health care, what does that mean for the state?
In a state-by-state comparison, the LFG study ranked North Carolina near the middle or toward the lower end in the average cost of such services as assisted living and in-home care.
For example, North Carolina ranks:
- 33rd in the average cost of a daily private room at a skilled-nursing facility at $262
- 17th in the average cost of a monthly studio at an assisted living facility at $4,424
- 39th in the hourly cost of a home health aide at $23
- 33rd in the per visit cost of a home health nurse at $130
“The reality is that more than half of us will need some form of long-term care in our lifetime, which may come with ‘sticker shock’ when people begin to evaluate professional care options,” said Mike Hamilton, vice president of MoneyGuard product management for LFG.
