Program Costs and Cost Savings
The nurse home visitation program
costs an estimated $3,200 per family per
year during the startup phase (first 3
years) and $2,800 per family per year
once nurses are completely trained and
working at full capacity. Costs vary from
site to site, depending primarily on nursing
salaries in the community where the
program is run. When the program focuses
on low-income women, the
government’s costs to fund the program
are recovered by the time the first child
reaches age 4, primarily because of the
reduced number of subsequent pregnancies
and related reductions in use of government
welfare programs (Olds et al.,
1993). A report from The RAND Corporation
estimates that by the time children
from high-risk families reach age 15 the
cost savings are four times the original
investment because of reductions in
crime, welfare expenditures, and health
care costs and as a result of taxes paid
by working parents (Karoly et al., 1998).
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