Can You Afford Long Term Care?
Only a handful of Americans can afford to pay the price of long term care (LTC) and most of these able citizens are famous for their affluence. Now if you’re an average American and your wealth has never been the talk of the town, self-insuring is not going to be right but you can definitely pull off long term care insurance cost.
Paying $450, or even $900, annually for a long term care insurance (LTCI) coverage is more reasonable than it would be to pay $38,000 per year for in-home care. In the event that you develop a chronic illness and eventually require nursing home care you’ll need to spend additional $78,000, so what would be left of your assets?
Nothing.
Elderly folks receiving LTC in nursing homes, according to professional nurses, stay for three years on average. This period of nursing home care varies according to each person’s health condition. Those with Alzheimer’s would normally stay from five to 10 years.
That report proves that no one can be so certain about what he will possibly need in the future health care-wise so it is good to have a financial plan to avoid using up all of your assets for LTC, or worse, outliving it.
Long Term Care Insurance Cost
Many people have been putting off an LTCI policy because they’re weighing this insurance product’s pros and cons to their finances. Perhaps they’ve been reading too much and news about premium hikes have completely discouraged them from purchasing their own LTCI policies.
What they need to understand is the fact that without LTCI all the more are they at risk of destroying their finances since the cost of care continues to head upwards and time will come when nobody will be capable of paying it in cash. As a matter of fact, financial advisers have forewarned everybody of the fourfold increase of LTC costs sometime 2030.
When that time comes, anyone who retires with $500,000 only in his nest egg has to immediately consider either reverse mortgage or Medicaid. That’s because three years in a nursing home will cost nearly $1,000,000 by that time.
By purchasing an LTCI policy today, you can secure future health care needs and protect your assets at the same time. Inflation will no doubt continue to pull up the cost of care but with a comprehensive policy which will cover your LTC expenses regardless of setting there is nothing that you should fear.
According to demographers, the country’s population over the age of 65 will double in 2030 but the sad truth is that only about 10 million Americans have LTCI policies at present. This is not a good sign as it clearly depicts how unmindful most people are of their responsibility to prepare for their future needs.
If only a fraction of today’s population is willing to face long term care insurance cost in order to be spared from tomorrow’s LTC costs, then it only means one thing. Majority of the nation is willing to lose their money and other assets just to qualify for Medicaid assistance.
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