A couple days after Maine voters rejected a tax increase to fund universal home care, a new study found that long-term care costs in the state rose during the past year, with the cost of both homemaker and home health aide services showing the highest increases.
The state’s home health aide services costs rose 10.64 percent from 2017 to 2018. The median annual cost was to $59,488.
That’s far higher than the 2.33 percent rise to $50,336 nationally during the same one-year period. Nationally, the cost for home health aide services has risen 19 percent from $42,168 in 2004.
The monthly cost of a home health aide was $4,576 in Penobscot County, including Bangor; $5,005 in Androscoggin County, including Lewiston and Auburn; and $5,339 in Cumberland, Sagadahoc and York counties, including Portland. The service costs $4,576 in the remaining Maine counties.
The figures are from the 15th annual Genworth Cost of Care Survey conducted by its related company, CareScout of Waltham, Massachusetts. Genworth Financial is an insurance holding company based in Richmond, Virginia. Findings were released Thursday.
To read the rest of “Maine home-care costs rose faster in past year than national average,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Lori Valigra, please follow this link to the BDN online.
