Assisted-Living Facilities

Paper Summary:

Assisted-living facilities offer a relatively new way to care for seniors who can't manage on their own. The facilities are typically a cross between an apartment building with services and a nursing home with various levels of personal assistance, which are all covered by a monthly rental fee. This paper examines literature on assisted-living facilities in the United States. It concludes with a summary of the research, which shows that, as the American population continues to grow older, increasing numbers of alternative and assisted-living arrangements are going to be required. Assisted-living facilities now represent the most rapidly growing type of residential care for elderly individuals in the United States.

From the Paper:

"Unfortunately for many older people, a fundamental constraint remains in the face of these growing trends towards assisted living facilities: they are not cheap. "The people who express most interest in relocating to an assisted-living community are those least able to afford it, earning on average less than $20,000 a year" (Horvitz 1997, p. 40). A typical assisted-housing unit may easily cost more than $2,000 or $3,000 a month (or more, depending on the region the country); in fact, only 27 percent of those who expect they might need long-term care services say they could come up with the money to pay for them (Horvitz 1997). Although some states have begun to seek waivers to allow Medicaid to pay for assisted living, the government generally restricts coverage to stays in nursing homes--even though assisted living costs 40 percent less. "It's a cheaper option than nursing homes--daily rates are lower," says Redding. "You pay only for what you need, not for what your neighbor needs." Policymakers do have reason to be wary. If assisted living becomes covered by Medicaid, hundreds of thousands of elderly people might take advantage of it, thereby placing an ever greater demand on scarce government resources (Horvitz 1997)."

More papers on Assisted-Living Facilities:

• Analytical Essay # 86332 : "Assisted Living Review"
• Business Plan # 122997 : "Assisted Living - A Business Plan"
• Analytical Essay # 144782 : "Long Term Care Facilities"

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