Long term care insurance isn’t a topic that has come up very often in the past. Long term care insurance isn’t as popular as auto insurance or health insurance, but we are seeing a steady increase in requests for quotes from people that call our Sugar Land insurance office. More and more business owners are asking about long term care coverage for their employees and more individuals are requesting it for themselves when it is not available at work. As more baby boomers are getting closer to retirement two things are happening: 1) they are taking care of a parent, aunt or uncle that needs help. 2) They start wondering who is going to take care of them when they need it. It takes a lot of time and money to take care of someone. Whether it is for you or your parents have you thought about how you are going to pay for it? Have you looked into the costs of home care, assisted living facilities, or nursing homes?
Long term care can be a variety of services and/or support to meet health care needs or just personal care needs over an extended period of time. Most long term care is non-skilled personal care assistance for ADLs= Activities of Daily Living. Non-skilled personal care assistance for activities such as:
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Some other things to consider: cooking, buying food, cleaning their house, laundry, maintenance around their house.
The need for long term care can be gradual or it can come on suddenly after an accident or stroke. Gradual long term care can start off as having someone check on your aunt twice a week. As your aunt gets older it will progress into everyday, then twice a day. It is not cheap for this type of service, $150+ a day. And you still have rent, bills, and food on top of that. A nursing home can easily run over $70,000 a year.
Things to consider
- Age – The risk generally increases as you get older, obviously.
- Marital Status – Single people are more likely to need care from a paid provider.
- Gender – Women are at a higher risk than men, mainly because they tend to live longer.
- Lifestyle – Poor diet and exercise habits increases your risk.
- Health and Family History – can also impact your risk.
- Medicare does not pay for the majority of LTC services
- Medicaid will only pay for LTC if you meet financial and functional criteria.
- Medicaid may cover nursing home care but only after an illness or injury.
There are dozens of companies that offer long term care insurance. Give our Sugar Land insurance agency a call if you would like to talk about getting coverage.
STATS for motivation:
“One year of care in a nursing home, based on the 2008 national average, costs over $68,000 for a semi-private room. One year of care at home, assuming you need periodic personal care help from a home health aide (the average is about three times a week), would cost almost $18,000 a year. 70% of people over 65 will need some type of long term care. This year, about 9 million Americans over the age of 65 will need long-term care services. By 2020, that number will increase to 12 million. Forty (40) percent of people currently receiving long-term care are adults 18 to 64 years old. Over 40 percent will need care in a nursing home for some period of time. On average, someone age 65 today will need some long-term care services for three years. Women need care for longer (on average 3.7 years) than do men (on average 2.2 years). While about one-third of today's 65-year-olds may never need long-term care services, 20 percent of them will need care for more than five years. A caregiver is a family member, partner, friend, or neighbor who helps care for an elderly individual or person with a disability who lives at home. A 2006 study of caregivers found that on average caregivers spend 21 hours a week giving care.”