Are you a "middle income" Senior whose got a long-term health care policy? Noticed your rates going up?

You're not alone.

The teeter-totter costs between home care and assisted living have shot up nearly 50% in the last seven years, putting the cabosh on a 10-year affordability run for middle-income older adults looking to buy long-term care, a new AARP’s report finds. 

And, if that's not enough, findings show that affordability varies dramatically across states. Older adults in states with the least affordable long-term care can pay for about half the amount of care that older adults in states with the most affordable. As costs rise faster than older adults’ household incomes, many families must deplete savings, rely on unpaid family caregivers, or go without needed care. 

“Home care and other long-term care services have quickly become increasingly unaffordable in recent years,” said Alan Weil, Senior Vice President for Public Policy at AARP. “The result is a widening gap between what care costs and what older adults and their families can afford – and we've got to fix this, because the consequences can be life-threatening.” 

The numbers don't lie

Is there any way around this?

In addition to the rising cost, the researchers uncovered some other pretty ugly metrics.

The second big sting is that what Americans earn on average is not enough to pay for long-term care. The study said that a Senior 65+ who makes in the neighborhood of $60k is going to exhaust almost all of that on the annual median cost of home care services which is now running upwards of $50,000. 

If you've got enough in the bank to cover that, you're ok, but most of those 75+ only have about $50k in financial assets – barely enough to cover a year of home care or only a few months of nursing home care.