The average daily cost of a private room in a nursing home in the United States increased almost 6% from last year, according to the annual MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home and Home Care Costs.
The survey, by MetLife's Mature Market Institute, found the average nursing home cost is $203 per day, up 5.7% from last year's $192.
That works out to $74,095 annually, compared to just over $70,000 in 2004.
Once again, Alaska nursing homes topped the list, with a daily cost of $531, while the Shreveport, La., area was lowest at $115. (See chart.)
The average daily rate for a semi-private room nationally was $176 ($64,240 annually), up 4.1% from $169 in 2004.
The study found that the cost per hour of a home health care aide increased $1, or 5.5%, to $19 per hour nationally, while homemaker-companion care averaged $17 per hour (homemaker-companion data was not included in prior MetLife studies).
The lowest costs for both home health care aides and homemakers-companions were $17 and $12 per hour in Shreveport, La. The highest cost for a home health care aide was Vermont at $31, while homemakers-companions cost the most in Rochester, Minn., at $23 per hour.
