When visiting with people about long-term care and the possibility of their needing such care someday, there are some common themes to their responses.
One common theme is, I’ll depend on family.
Does your family have the:
- Resources—Do they live close enough to make this a realistic option?
- Expertise—Do they know how to provide the care you may need? Caring for an adult brings with it some unique challenges.
- Time—Are their work schedules flexible enough to allow time to take care of you?
- Willingness—Assuming resources allow, would they be willing to take care of you?
If your family is willing to care for you, consider the effect it will have on them. Relying on family members to be your primary caregivers can decrease their quality of life, and add significant stress to their lives. For those individuals qualified to receive long-term care, on average, 33 percent of caregivers are spending more than 30 hours every week to provide long-term care services. Many of these people might have avoided becoming a burden to their loved ones if they had made preparations for long-term care.
A common misconception is, you can pay for the cost of long-term care yourself.
The current national average cost of nursing home care is $248 per day, or $90,520 per year.
Home care may be less expensive, but it still adds up. Bringing a home health aide into your home to help with dressing, bathing, preparing meals and similar household chores costs $45,760 per year (based on 44 hours per week). Add in the cost of skilled help, such as physical therapists, and these costs can be much greater. In fact, home care, if provided 24 hours per day, is usually more expensive than facility care, if the care can be found. Frequently, family members have to supplement home care services.
How long can you afford this?
If you consider the annual cost of a nursing home, the average length of stay, and inflation, we are talking about some big bucks here.
For many people, purchasing a long-term care insurance (LTCI) policy could be a prudent choice.
Why? With LTCI, one of the main benefits is you stay in control.
LTCI enables you to transfer some of the financial risk of long-term care costs to an insurance company. In exchange for current premiums, LTCI helps you preserve your accumulated wealth from the potentially devastating expense of long-term care. I t also helps to preserve your right to make choices about the type of care you receive, and the setting in which you choose to receive it.
LTCI can be used to help your family care for you—financially and physically. It can mean enhanced security and peace of mind for you and your family.
It is important to keep in mind the fact long-term care premiums may increase over time, and must be considered when determining if a long-term care policy is right for you.
So, who exactly qualifies for LTCI?
Telling you to consider this is one thing, but many people are not sure if they would qualify for this powerful policy. Considering the following criteria, you may qualify.
- You are under age 80.
- You want to protect your assets.
- Married couples who want to protect each other.
- Parents who don’t want to burden their children.
- Singles who have no spouse or family to care for them.
Let’s talk today. Call Donna Kohlhase at (480) 396-2140.
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43 states, including Arizona, have passed landmark legislation creating special long-term care insurance policies called “Partnership Policies”. These “Long-Term Care Partnership Programs” are designed to encourage the middle-class to purchase an amount of long-term care insurance that is equal to their assets. If their long-term care insurance policy runs out of benefits they can apply for Medicaid to pay for their care and all of their assets would be protected from Medicaid “spend down” and Medicaid “estate recovery”.
It is true that most of the older long-term care insurance policies have had large premium increases. To protect consumers purchasing policies today, 41 states have passed strict pricing regulations. Consumers purchasing policies today are protected from the pricing mistakes of older policies.
Over 7,000,000 people currently own long-term care insurance. This year nearly 300,000 people will make claims on their long-term care policies. This year’s claims will total nearly $10 billion.