“You could easily become poverty stricken and destitute if you don’t have Long Term Care Insurance policy, or rich children, or a gazillion dollars in the bank!”
Long Term Care Insurance is not a luxury or for the rich. It is a necessity that you should not ignore.
For years, Americans have believed that Medicare would take care of them when they get older, but that just isn’t true. Nursing homes are home to over 8,000,000 Americans, and that number is going to double in the next 10 years!
If you have been wondering whether of not Long Term Care Insurance is right for you or a loved one, then I will do my best to convince you that this is the very best investment you can make in yourself or a loved one. Yes, it has a monthly price tag higher than a gym membership, but benefits far outweigh the costs.
Hello, my name is Susan B Geffen, and for more than 20 years I have been an attorney and taught as an elder law professor at Loyola Law School. About 8 years ago, I decided to concentrate on helping the elderly and their adult children make good decisions about this precious time in their lives.
Early on as a Gerontologist, I discovered that Long Term care Insurance is one of the most important insurance policies a person could own in this country. I have seen wonderful, successful people end up in nursing homes because they couldn’t afford the high cost of in-home care. These proud people had very sad twilight years, but it didn’t have to happen to them.
How do you know if you are going to need long term care? You don’t know, and you won’t know, until it happens. Truth be told, you are much more likely to need Long Term Care than get into a car accident. If you are age 40 or older, there is a 50% likelihood you will need Long Term Care, and when you hit 60 years of age, there is a 70% likelihood you will need it, 70%!
And the problem is only getting worse for Americans. With the attempt to balance the budget in the United States, Medicare is no longer going to pay for in-home care, forcing thousands of elderly adults who need help with ADL’s (Activities of Daily Living) to move into nursing homes. These folks have no choice. They simply cannot afford to pay for in-home care themselves, yet they cannot survive without help.
It’s sad, it seems very wrong, and often unnecessary. If people in this country would wake up and smell the coffee, things could be much different. With better planning, and less denial about getting older, they could age in place, in their home, comfortably. Instead, millions of Americans are being uprooted at the most fragile time since their birth.
No one, including me, wants to be a burden to our children.
If you don’t have Long Term Care Insurance, you are 50% to 100% more likely to move in with your children when you need care. Of course if you have adult children, they will want to help, but is it fair to them or their children to be such a burden?
And moving in with your children is not the end of your problems. Eventually they will become exhausted, physically and emotionally, financially drained, and sooner than later you will probably need to move into a nursing home. This is called caregiver burnout, and it is happening everyday to families everyday.
Each of us hopes, including me, that we stay healthy for our lifetime and never need any long term care. But, that just isn’t realistic. And it is gambling. If you happen to get sick and need long term care, you won’t qualify for insurance.
Just because you need help with Activities of Daily Living, doesn’t mean you should lose your control and independence
I have worked with many clients who have become depressed because they have lost their ability to make decisions about where they live and who helps them. They need help with things like getting dressed and taking a bath, but now have no choice but to move into a nursing home. This could have been avoided if they had planned ahead and purchased a good Long Term Care Insurance policy.
What is peace of mind worth to you?
Let’s look at the break-even point. Lets say you are paying $2,500 per year for Long Term Care Insurance, and skilled nursing costs $7,000 per month. With just 3 months of care, all of your premiums you’ve paid over 3 months would have been eaten up. How else would you be able to afford the care you need without having Long Term Care Insurance?
One of the best things I can say about Long Term Care Insurance is that people who have it have a greater peace of mind than those who are still thinking about it. I think having a greater peace of mind is what insurance is all about, don’t you?
It’s about giving you a sense that “if something goes wrong (and for most of us, it will), then I will be taken care of and my family will be off the hook for the expenses”.
