long term care
Statistics show that 1 out of every 2 people will need some kind of long term care at one point or another, including 70 % of people aged 65 or older. When you consider the fact that long term care in a nursing home has a national average annual cost of $41,000, it is important to understand everything there is to know about long term care sooner, rather than later. (Long term care insurance in itself is incredibly cheaper than this, ranging anywhere from $50 to $10,000 per year) For instance, it is important to note that long term care is not directly related to living in a nursing facility. Long term care can take elsewhere, such as:
- In your own home: A live-in or daily caretaker
- In an assisted living community / retirement home
- In an adult day care center
Due to the possible extreme costs of long term care, and the inability for Medicare/Medicaid/health insurance to cover them, it is suggested that you consider purchasing a long term life insurance policy to help bare the burden of the costs. It is generally recommended by insurance companies that people aged 50 and over consider investing in some kind of long term care insurance, especially if you have some kind of chronic/degenerative disease, or a family history of illness. Long term care insurance is recommended mainly for people who don't have enough savings to pay for the costs of long term care. Like all insurance policies, long term insurance consists of paying a predetermined premium on an established timeframe so as to avoid incurring the costs associated with common health problems such as:
- Any kind of prolonged illness such as cancer.
- Dementia or Alzheimer's disease (Directly associated with age).
- Handicap or disability of some kind.
- Degenerative conditions such as heart attack/disease, Parkinson's or a stroke.
Stubbornness only increases with age, so for some it might be a difficult task to convince themselves that they need any kind of nursing care. Nobody wants to admit to themselves that they are no longer capable of providing their own care, and rarely do they want to hear it / accept it when they're told so by a family member. Generally speaking, you become eligible for long term care benefits when you show signs of being incapable of handling two or more of the following daily living activities:
- Eating
- Cooking
- Cleaning
- Using the toilet
- Dressing yourself
- Moving from one location to another (on a small scale. I.E, climbing stairs or standing up/sitting down)
- Lose voluntary control over urinary and fecal discharge.
The average nursing home stay is approximately 2 - 2.5 years. When you purchase your long term insurance policy, you can choose to cover this average timeframe, or you can choose to cover an unlimited number of years. If you choose the average timeframe or less, then you might find that after that time period ends, the policyholder is still in need of nursing home care. At that point, it is more or less too late to be able to finance a lengthened stay without the help of insurance.
The price of long term care insurance is affected by the following:
- Current age
- Coverage options
- Coverage timeframe
- Coverage provider
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Take a look at our abbreviated listing of > LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES <
|
