Top 10 Reasons People Should Obtain a
Long Term Care Insurance Policy:
10. The government isn't going to pay for long-term care at home, in a nursing home, or in an assisted living center. Medicare pays 100% of long-term care for 20 days and all but $95.00 per day for the next 80 days--after that nothing. However Medicare only pays for skilled care and most long term care is not skilled care.
9. The national average cost for nursing homes is approximately $105.00 per day. Assisted living ranges anywhere from $50 - $90 per day. If you live on the Eastern Seaboard you can easily spend $50,000 to $80,000 for a year's stay in a nursing home. These costs are perfectly capable of wiping out a lifetime of savings-not to mention the emotional effect long-term care has on a family.
8. A Harvard University study showed that 69% of single people and 34% of married couples would exhaust their assets after 13 weeks in a nursing home. 13 Weeks = 91 days!.
7. At age 65, a woman has a one out of two chance of spending some time in a nursing home. A man has a one out of three chance. In the case of men, mortality catches up with morbidity.
6. Medicaid kicks in only after a person's assets and dignity are gone. In many states the
eligibility threshold for single people is $1,500 in assets. After all Medicaid is WELFARE.
5. Children would like to help, but children often have children of their own. They certainly can't quit their jobs to care for their parents.
4. Health rarely improves with age.
3 . People can't buy long-term care coverage at crisis time or when they are ready to use it.
2. American's have access to the best health care in the world, if they can pay for it.
1. Most People want to choose where they go instead of having to go where they are taken, and if independence is important to them, they will need to have either a big estate or adequate
insurance.
Information quoted directly from:
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A Shopper's Guide to Long-Term Care Insurance , National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
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Long Term Care Companion Consumer Guide, Transamerica Occidental Life.
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Because long term care insurance claims must often be paid ten or twenty years after the policy is written, it's always important to check the financial strength of the insurance company. The best way to gauge financial strength is to be sure the insurance carrier has received excellent ratings from the industry's major rating services: A.M. Best, Standard & Poor's, Moody's, and Duff & Phelps.
By planning ahead, you'll be providing peace of mind for your family's future. Long term care insurance policies offer a practical and affordable way to protect your assets - and your independence.
Seventy percent of people who are older than 65 will need long term care services 1
77 million Americans will turn 50 over the next 18 years. That's 1 person every 7.5 seconds 2
43% of individuals age 65 will enter a nursing home sometime in their lifetime, 3 with 50% staying an average of 2.5 years 4
The national average for 1 year in a nursing home is approximately $41,000; in larger cities from $50 to $60,000 annually 5
50 percent of all couples and 70 percent of single persons are impoverished within one year of entering a nursing home 6
For every person receiving care in a nursing home, there are 4 people receiving care outside a facility 7
The annual cost to companies for lost productivity from eldercare responsibilities is $17 billion a year 8 or $3,142 per employee 9
By 2020, one in three workers will provide some type of eldercare 10
Sources:
1. Life Insurance Selling, December 1992
2. CBS News - Census Bureau
3. New England Journal of Medicine, February 1991
4. American Association of Homes for the Aging, 1989, Leimberg, 1992
5. HIAA, "Long Term Care -- Needs, Costs and Financing (1992)
6. Leimberg's "Think About It" Stephan R. Leimberg, JD, CLU (November 1992)
7. U.S. Administration on Aging, July 1991
8. USA Today, July 19, 1994
9. Wall Street Journal, July 19, 1995
10. USA Today, July 19, 1994
