Fair points. Numbers are not infallible, I'm just sharing costs I've seen. My mother started in an assisted living place that was supposed to be more just meals and low-level care, and it was not really that much cheaper than the full-on memory care costs.

If I am scaring people with the numbers, it's because I'm trying to build in what I suspect costs will do in the next decade. Rent shows no sign of leveling off, which will also affect the costs of senior housing. Health care costs certainly show no sign of leveling off either.

To some extent I'm not talking to Boomers here. Judging by the political climate most Gen X'ers and Millennials certainly cannot take any kind of social security or medicare/medicaid for granted either.

Also, vast majorities of seniors right NOW may not require 20 years of care--but increasingly I believe at least five to fifteen will be in order because Boomers are going into old age healthier than any generation before them. Even my Silent Generation mother with a history of high blood pressure and cholesterol is now basically at five years plus. She hasn't been in a facility that long, but that's because her five kids helped her a lot before she moved into assisted living.