Who needs LTC Insurance? Can you afford LTC Health Care Insurance? When do you get it? When is it too late to help you? What are the Cost Benefits?
We are all concerned about our health care, especially as we advance in age. The news often covers the benefits of health insurance and life insurance, but have you given much thought to how much does long term care insurance cost? Most of us will need long term care during our lives for one reason or another, especially now that life expectancies continue to rise.How much does long term care insurance cost?
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The cost of one person staying in a fully staffed nursing home for a year can be prohibitive... from $50,000 to $90,000 in some area's. Compare that to the cost of the insurance itself, which can range from $2000 to $4000 per year, and you can see how much you have to gain from protecting yourself with a good long term care plan. The cost of insurance coverage varies greatly depending on your age, marital status, location, your health at the time of purchasing the plan and more.
One way to decide if insurance coverage is right for you is to do a personal cost analysis. How much does long term care insurance cost compared to the "real time" cost of long term health care options in your area. Research the cost of nursing home care, quality care from in-home care providers, assisted living, and adult day care, then decide at what point the cost of needing these services will become a financial burden to you and/or your family.
Recent studies show that 1 in 4 of us will require nursing home care for at least one year. Most of us will not even start thinking about this kind of insurance coverage until we are 65 or older. However, the cost of starting a policy when you are younger is so much lower that the savings is very worthwhile in the long run. The optimal age for getting your LTC insurance policy is 55 years old.
Many people think that Medicaid will cover them in the event of needing quality care over the long term, but Medicaid doesn't kick in until all of your personal assets have been "absorbed" by the system. Can you afford that? And without the security of a premium insurance policy, you may not get any choice in where or how you get your long term health care after your ability to pay for it runs out.
A friend of mine once asked me, "How much would your family pay to take care of you, if you were unable to take care of your long term care costs?" Of course, the answer is anything and everything. But, I wouldn't want them to have to do that. It makes perfect sense to invest in my future in terms of quality health care. How much does long term health insurance cost? It is the cost of not having it that concerns me most.
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