Can You Afford Long Term Care Insurance?
If you were to ask me who should buy long term care insurance the answer would definitely be anyone who does not overspend on coffee, online dating, health and beauty regimen, home repair, and most especially entertainment stuff like concert tickets, DVDs and the like.
According to a financial research that focuses on where people’s hard earned money go, a big percentage of young and old Americans spend a lot of money on coffee beverages, personal ads for online dating websites, gym membership, beauty products, home upgrades, and anything related to the entertainment industry.
Although a few answered investments it was mainly concentrated on tangible properties like a condo unit, apartment, and stocks and bonds among others.
Analyzing the spending habits of people it is apparent that not many can put away enough money for the price of a long term care insurance (LTCI) policy. That’s because nobody knows when the premiums will go up again.
Premium rates for LTCI policies go up every now and then so that insurance companies can pay the claims of policyholders. It can be recalled that it was only late last year when major insurance companies that market LTCI policies implemented an increase in the premiums of existing policyholders as they’ve underestimated the number of claims that they would receive.
Overwhelmed by the millions of dollars that they have to pay out in benefits, these insurance companies were left with no choice but to increase the premium rates of policies.
Now it is not impossible for something like that to happen again in the future so if you wait to reach the age of 60 or till you’ve retired already before purchasing a policy, you will be subjected to a high annual premium.
If you want your life after retirement to be free of financial worries you have to start prioritizing the important things and save the little whims for later.
Who Should Buy Long Term Care Insurance?
When was the last time you visited your doctor? If you’re 40 or older you should start looking into your future health care needs.
Are you aware of the common cause of death in your family? If not, start researching and in case you find out that you have a predisposition towards a specific type of chronic illness, worrying will not do you any good.
Start planning. This is not hard to do especially if your family takes part in it. Let them know what’s in your mind, what you fear about the future and how you would want to be cared for when the time comes that you can no longer perform the activities of daily living (ADL) such as eating, bathing, and dressing among others.
Now in case your family’s health history did not reveal a serious health condition, it does not follow that you will not require long term care (LTC).
It is important to remember that it is not only individuals with serious medical conditions who should buy long term care insurance. Once you can no longer get up from bed, go to the bathroom, prepare your meals, dress up, and maintain your house without assistance from an extra pair of hands, you instantly qualify for LTC.
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