An interactive online tool to help explore the potential cost of nursing homes, assisted living and home health care
Northwestern Mutual has launched a new interactive online tool – Long Term Care Cost Calculator – to help understand the financial impact of individual care needs.
The calculator builds on Northwestern Mutual’s Cost of Care research, released earlier this year, which surveyed nearly 7,000 home health care providers, assisted living facilities and nursing homes across the US. It revealed stark differences in costs for long term care services in geographic locations across the country.
About 60% of individuals over age 65 will require at least some type of long term care services during their lifetime. People who reach age 65 will likely to have a 40% chance of entering a nursing home.
About 10% of the people who enter a nursing home will stay there five years or more. Nearly seven in ten (68%) Americans have a family member or close friend who has been in a nursing home or received long term care in the past three years.
The Long Term Care Cost Calculator includes a series of adjustable ‘sliders’ that allow individuals to view various long term care scenarios in real-time, setting the stage for a in-depth discussion and consideration of an individual’s long term care risks.
It joins several other calculators from Northwestern Mutual, all of which are aimed at helping educate individuals to help them understand how certain risks apply to them and how they can best manage those risks, claims the company.