By JACKIE TAYLOR | April 1, 2026

Senior care

I was thinking about a fun trip I took about 10 years ago to Seattle, Wash. – and with it the changes in the lives of the women I went with.

At that time, the biggest difference was that we were all healthy, our parents were living productive lives in their own homes, and we were able to travel without worrying about who is taking care of mom or dad.

Now, several in my group of friends have lost one or more of their parents, the parent that is living is ill enough that life revolves around taking care of them, and/or my friends themselves have health issues that are life changing.

The older I get, the more respect I have for indigenous people of the Old West who traveled in bands of people, lived by their family members, and everyone took care of everyone else in food preparation, food gathering and overall care.

Now, life-styles have changed so much in our United States that there is no longer a nuclear family structure like they had in Dances With Wolves or other films depicting Native American lives. Honestly, it would make life simpler, in a way, if life was such that our aging parents could be taken care of at home without fear of losing their homes and the care-taker of losing their job due to time issues.

I’m fortunate, my dad is relatively healthy, but facing the decline all human beings face with advanced age. We have begun the in-depth look at how to face taking care of him and not losing everything in the meanwhile.

My step-mother passed a little over two years ago. The nursing home cost $8,900 each month for the care she received; she lived two years. That equated to roughly $213,600 in just nursing home costs; because God was good and with the circumstances of their marriage, dad was able to handle the cost with help from the state.

Now, enter my dad’s age and needs. He doesn’t have the same situation my step-mom had and assisted living has been priced at $4,800 each month.

Our family, like millions of other families and some of my friends, is looking at how to handle that cost and still have something left when Jesus takes dad home to heaven.

One friend of mine splits shifts with family members to give her mom 24-hour care; it’s a hardship on all families in the circle – but they’ve chosen to handle it that way to hopefully have something left in the end.

Other friends have family members that have been in nursing homes for years; each circumstance is different, but the reality of huge costs for care to either the family or the state is there.

Theseniorlist.com reported, “Over 1.2 million people across the nation live in nearly 15,000 Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing homes.

“While the overall occupancy rates of these facilities decreased during the pandemic, a decrease that has held strong over the past couple of years, nursing homes still represent a vital source of housing and care for a large number of seniors.

As of 2025, there are 14,742 federally certified nursing facilities in the U.S.

Between 2015 and 2025, the number of federally certified nursing facilities decreased by 6 percent.4

The average monthly cost for a private room is $10,646 per month and $9,277 for a semi-private room.5

In 2023, 37 percent of long-term institutional care costs were paid for out-of-pocket, and Medicaid paid for 44 percent.6

The 2025 reconciliation law (passed on July 4, 2025) is expected to reduce $911 billion of federal Medicaid spending over the next 10 years. This could have implications for nursing facilities.”

Interesting to me is the next bit of information on average nursing care per day. The article continued, “Residents receive an average of 3.85 hours of nursing care per day.10

This includes an average of 0.87 hours of LPN care, 0.68 hours of RN care, and 2.3 hours of nurse aide care per day.11

From 2015 to 2025, the average hours of nursing care that residents received declined from 4.13 hours to 3.85 hours per resident each day (7 percent).”

The 3.85 hours of care per day puts new light on bringing in-home care in; the government is shy on paying for much care, though the cost is so much less to leave someone in their own home.

In my dad’s case, he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force and has VA benefits. Even with those, in his case, they only pay for 9-12 hours of in-home care a week. That leaves a lot of time that we have to pay for a private agency to assist him – hours that I, as the only caretaker, need filled for his care.

I write this pulpit only for the fact that the care system for our senior citizens is expensive and not well-funded leaving much of the burden on families. It’s tragic for some when the resources are not there; it leaves our seniors in a dangerous position and puts the state in the driver’s seat.

Life rolls on; but it is not kind in the aging process. God help us all because we’ll all be there someday.