‘It’s too expensive for most people’: Skyrocketing cost of eldercare is obliterating the chance of passing on an inheritance for many Americans

Most striking: the share of people who died with nothing left after care costs nearly doubled, rising from 6% for those who died between 2006 and 2010 to almost 11% for those who died between 2017 and 2022.

Bill Roggenkamp, 68, from Ohio, told the Post his 96-year-old mother has been in an assisted-living facility with dementia for seven years at $15,000 per month. Her savings are gone. He and his siblings took out a loan against a life insurance policy. If that runs out, they may have to sell a Kentucky farm that’s been in the family since the 1960s.

“It just eradicates any generational wealth,” he said, “unless you’re very, very well off.”

The costs driving this healthcare trend

The math behind these stories is straightforward yet alarming. According to the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey, the national median cost of an assisted-living community is now $74,400 per year — a figure the Post reports has risen 44% over five years, nearly double the rate of inflation.

And a private room in a nursing home runs families $129,575 per year. For someone like Roggenkamp’s mother requiring seven years of nursing-level care, the total bill approaches $1 million.

Medicare — which most Americans assume will cover these costs, the Post reports — typically doesn’t cover long-term nursing home stays or custodial care “if it’s the only care you need.” This care includes help with daily activities like bathing, dressing or eating, which most seniors requiring long-term care require.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 56% of Americans turning 65 are likely to develop a condition requiring long-term care — yet the Washington Post reports that only 15% of Americans 65 and older carry long-term care insurance to help cover it.

That gap falls directly on families. John Kane, a senior vice president at the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, put it plainly in the Post: “It’s not overreaching to say that funding for long-term care in this country is broken. It’s too expensive for most people, yet it needs further investment to ensure frontline caregivers receive a competitive wage.”

The Medicaid trap

When savings run out, many families look to Medicaid — but that carries a hidden catch: states are required to attempt to recoup money spent on a person’s long-term care from their assets after death — though there’s discretion to waive recovery if it would cause “undue hardship.”

Amanda Spishak-Thomas, a Rutgers University assistant research professor who studies this practice, told the Post she spent years as a social worker completing Medicaid applications without understanding the program could potentially seize applicants’ homes later on.