The data suggest that few of us will escape the problem: It seems that more than ⅓ of us will spend time in a nursing home at some point in our lives, and 4 out of 10 will likely need paid help in order to remain at home in the community. In essence, few of us will escape the necessity of paying for long term care, for our loved ones or ourselves, and thus will face the increasingly exorbitant costs of that care. For resources to help you consider these costs, take a look at the agebuzz helpful resource page on long term care costs.

According to writer Liz Westin in Nerd Wallet, while many of us hope to rely on unpaid family members for the help we will need, 40% of us will be spending up to $50,000/year for help while some will perhaps spend $250,000 or more in long term care costs. And if these sums surprise you, you’re not alone. Apparently, most of us underestimate the costs of long term care. And don’t look to Medicare to pay for most of that expense because it won’t cover it. That could leave you or your loved ones high and dry if you don’t have long term care insurance, a home equity cushion or investments to draw from. 

And when it comes to long term care costs, apparently, geography can be destiny. Where you live may very well determine how high your bills are, whether you’re using paid home care, assisted living or a nursing home. Recently, Yahoo Finance published a list of typical senior care costs for every state. To get more specific, let’s break it down. For nursing home care, Bloomberg recently reported on a Georgetown study documenting that in many states, the costs of nursing home care are outstripping the rise in inflation, driven largely by financial pressures from a shortage of nursing home workers. Moreover, our policy fights over immigration are likely to aggravate those pressures if we continue to limit the number of immigrants who can work in the long term care setting. 

Finally, if you want to see the diversity of costs for assisted living across the country, pull out your checkbook and look here. And if you’re hoping to stay in your home but can anticipate the future need for paid home care, recognize that the cost of full time paid home care is now the equivalent of the median household income and continues to rise, depending on where you live. In the words of one long term care researcher, buckle up, because when it comes to long term care costs, we’re looking at “a slow-moving train wreck.”