A new study shows assisted living facilities in New Jersey to be the most expensive in the country -- with a monthly cost of almost $6000. The national average is just over $4000.
Laurie Brewer, who runs the state office that investigates abuses in long-term care, said the high cost of living in New Jersey is to blame, putting these facilities beyond the means of most people, even those on Medicaid.
“You could find yourself in a situation where you have spent all of your life savings at that assisted living facility, with the expectation that when your funds run out you can stay in that facility on Medicaid,” she said, “only to find out that there is not a Medicaid bed for you since such facilities only have to set aside 10% of beds for Medicaid patients.”
Brewer said the state is looking at other options for caring for people as they age.
“New Jersey has a very ambitious plan that they have filed with the federal government to dramatically expand home and community based services to keep people at home,” she said.
“The unfortunate truth is that assisted living is not affordable for most people living in New Jersey,” said Brewer.
The study, bySeniorly.com, was based on move-in data from the company’s network of 40,000 senior communities this year.
It also looked at how many years a person needs to save to afford one year of assisted living. For New Jersey residents, that was almost 12 years, based on the state’s median income of about $82,000.
New York State was number 12 on the list. Connecticut was number 9 and Pennsylvania was way down the list at number 32.