John Hancock Announces Results of National Long-Term Care Cost of Care Study

from Virtualization:

BOSTON, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- John Hancock Life Insurance
Company (John Hancock) today announced the results of an in-depth study of the
2008 costs of long-term care (LTC), which found that LTC costs have been
increasing in line with inflation in recent years.

Including information from more than 11,000 care providers nationwide, the
study of national care costs conducted by CareScout, based in Wellesley, MA,
revealed average costs of care in the U.S. are roughly $75,000 annually for a
private room in a nursing home; $67,000 annually for a semi-private room in a
nursing home; and $35,000 annually for an assisted living facility, while the
average cost of home care was found to be about $19 per hour.

A comparison of the 2008 national averages to those of a similar study
conducted by Harris, Rothenberg International for John Hancock in 2002,
indicates that the increases in costs over the past six years appear to be
tracking inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) during the
same time period. According to the study, the average annual increase in the
cost of long-term care is trending in line with the 3.3 percent average annual
increase in the CPI during the same time period as noted below.