Going through this right now with my mother. In 6 months time, she went from living alone and all there mentally to breaking her hip and now being in a nursing home for life. In small town Iowa, the not-for-profit nursing home is charging her $9k/month. Right now I'm in the process of getting everything together for when she has to go on Medicaid. At 90 and in her condition, it really doesn't matter. She has zero expenses beside the nursing home. I could see how this would be really bad if it was husband/wife.
On a side note, I was ignorant when it came to the impact on breaking a hip. I had always heard how bad it is to break it when you're old, and assumed they were talking about walking. For her, it was the anesthesia. Apparently, when you're old it can cause major damage mentally, which it did.