Better home environments save private and public money

You would expect me to advocate spending money on home environments that will suit us better as we age--after all, I co-own a company that creates better living spaces and am fostering it through a franchise strategy. But in this case, the company and strategy are an outgrowth of the need. I saw some very compelling data today in this article--from Tennessee but which happens to cover a lot of data about my home state of Oregon.

http://www.dicksonherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070520/NEWS07/705200397

Joe Easton, manager of Oregon's in-home-care support unit, said the average cost of in-home care there is $800 a month versus $200 a day — or about $6,000 a month — for nursing home care. "People would rather stay in their own home, and the cost is much less," Easton said. By adopting policies to get people out of nursing homes and into other types of care, McGuire says, Oregon spends about $400 million less in state and federal money than Tennessee each year. "You can serve a lot more people for a lot less money outside of a nursing home," McGuire said. "It just makes sense financially."

Imagine being able to cut your monthly living costs by over 85%--which is what the numbers above suggest. Wouldn't it be worth investing a bit in your home to facilitate that?