My brother's plan to keep Mom at home is going to backfire hard

Last week my brother John said Mom can just stay in her house in Cleveland forever with a few visits from a home health aide. I read a study from the National Council on Aging that said 70 percent of people over 65 will need some kind of long term care, not just drop in help. He thinks she can call him if she falls and he will drive over from work in 20 minutes. The average home health aide costs $30 an hour here and he wants to pay that out of pocket for 40 hours a week. Meanwhile a decent assisted living place is $4,500 a month with meals and med management included. Has anyone else had a sibling refuse to run the numbers on what real care actually costs?

3 comments

3 Comments

val_ramirez8d ago

Man, has your brother actually watched what that level of care costs?

evan_davis8d ago

Take @corah75's point about signing blindly and run with it. That's exactly how hospitals bank on people acting. You don't look, they don't tell, and suddenly you're stuck with a bill that could've bought a house.

corah758d ago

My brother doesn't watch the costs cause he can't bring himself to face it. You're right to ask that because he just signs whatever the hospital puts in front of him. He told me once that if he looked at the bills too close, he'd have a breakdown on top of everything else. So your question is fair, @val_ramirez. Most people don't realize how fast those numbers add up until a family member is in that bed. Do you think he's just pretending it's all going to be okay?