While ‘Medicare’ and ‘standard health insurance’ may be more commonly heard household phrases, ‘long-term care’ is on the rise. Long-term care includes medical and non-medical services for those with a chronic illness or disability. Care can include everything from the daily tasks called activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, eating, etc. to providing a social community in a nursing home.
Some of us may not be as familiar with long-term care, but it continues to gain supporters, and for good reason. This year, approximately 12 million adults over 65 will need it at some point in their lives. While Medicare and other health policies serve a need, they do not pay for long-term care, a fact many of us may not know until it’s too late. Most assume it does until they need it and at that point they have to drain their life’s savings to pay for the nursing home or home health care aide.
If you need long-term care it is pricey, but planning ahead and buying long term care insurance will ensure you will not have to pay the full $70,000 a year that a nursing home will cost. Your policy would pay all or most of your long term care expense while protecting your family from the high cost of receiving long term care services. However in order to reap the benefits of long term care, you have to start planning now. Not when you’re seeing the first signs of aging or develop ailments, but much earlier. Long Term Care Insurance companies decline about 50% of applicants because most wait until AFTER they are diagnosed with a disease or AFTER they had an accident. In fact, the healthier you are, which is typically younger, the more money you will save for long-term care. When this cost can range from $34,000 (assisted living care) to over $70,000 (nursing home) per year, savings add up quickly.
Care is adaptable to individuals’ specific needs and wants. Whether you want to stay in the comfort of your own home and receive in home care, or prefer the community a nursing home provides, long-term care will cover it, either way. Some may need help, but not necessarily care, in which group homes may be most effective. A more thorough break-down of the most used options are available the LTC Tree website.
Long-term care is available through various insurance companies. It can be paid for through various modes, ranging from few, large payments to smaller, monthly payments. The average annual long-term care premium, according to John Hancock, runs about $2,300. Whoever you go through, long-term care insurance will save you copious amounts of money and stress, and is well worth it.
