Costs for long term care continue to rise

NEW YORK (AP) - The costs for long-term care have gone up for a fifth straight year.

Genworth Financial has found that charges for nursing homes, assisted living facilities and some in-home care services are up anywhere from 7 to 25% in the last five years.

The national average annual cost of a nursing home is more than $76,000, a 17% jump since 2004. The cost of assisted living facilities went up by 25%, from just under $29,000 to more than $36,000.

The study predicts that those fees will continue to rise because of a shortage of long-term care workers at a time when more baby boomers are reaching retirement.

Seniors head to Mexico for cheaper nursing care

CHAPALA, Mexico - Richard Slater lives at a nursing home in Mexico, comfortably settled into his own cottage surrounded by purple bougainvillea and pomegranate trees.

Here, he has plenty of room for his two dogs. He shares a little patio with three other American residents. He gets 24-hour nursing care and three meals a day, cooked in a homey kitchen and served in a sun-washed dining room.

For this, Slater pays just $550 a month, less than one-tenth of the going rate back home in Las Vegas. For an additional $140 a year, he gets complete medical coverage from the Mexican government, including all his medicine and insulin for his diabetes.