Health-care cost now up to $20.50 an hour at home

The cost of home health care services is up again, rising to a national average of $20.50 per hour, up 2.5% from 2008, according to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance. The cost of care is all over the map. In Boston, home health care runs around $28 per hour, on average. But Miami and Dallas both have among the lowest hourly costs — $17 per hour — for home health care. Even in New York, which is not exactly an inexpensive town, the average cost of home health care is $18 per hour. Nevertheless, those last three cities can be expensive for more high-end home care. Indeed, the cost of a Medicare-certified and licensed home health aide ranges between $36,608 and $57,200 annually, with Dallas being at the higher end, according to data from Genworth Financial Inc. A possible reason for the relatively low overall home care costs in Miami, New York and Dallas is that those metropolitan areas are immigration hubs. Immigrants provide the home health care industry with a source of relatively low-cost labor, noted Jesse Slome, executive director of the AALTCI. The mean hourly wage for a home health aide in the U.S. in 2008 is $10.31, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Homemakers, who provide help with housekeeping, generally cost less than home health aides. In New York, it costs an average of $16 per hour to hire a homemaker. Meanwhile, in Miami, Dallas and Kansas City, Mo., it costs $17 per hour. According to government data, some 7.5 million individuals currently receive extended periods of care at home because of acute illness, permanent disability or long-term health conditions. The nation's annual tab for home care is projected to come in just shy of $60 billion this year.