Being Mortal

This was not the average retirement community, but even in an average one rent runs $ 32,000 a year. Entry fees are typically $ 60,000 to $ 120,000 on top of that. Meanwhile, the median income of people eighty and older is only about $ 15,000. More than half of the elderly living in long-term-care facilities run through their entire savings and have to go on government assistance—welfare—in order to afford it. Ultimately, the average American spends a year or more of old age disabled and living in a nursing home (at more than five times the yearly cost of independent living),