Long Term Care Insurance
What is long term care insurance? It is coverage that covers the costs of care that is needed when a person can no longer care for themselves and are unable to do two or more of the six activities of daily living.
These six recognized activities of daily living are bathing, eating, dressing, continence, toileting and transferring. An example of transferring is getting out of bed, or moving from one point to another.
Long term care insurance will pay for this kind of care at home, in an assisted living facility, a nursing home, adult daycare or Hospice up to the benefit amount that you choose. It is not just nursing home insurance.
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With your LTC Quotes, you will also receive:
The Shopper's Guide to Long Term Insurance
A Tax Guide to Long Term Insurance
Here are some national long term care statistics:
- The average stay in a long term care facility is 2.8 years.
- The nationwide, average cost per year for a nursing home is $75,000.
- The nationwide, average cost per year for assisted living is $36,000.
- One out of three men will use long term care in their lifetime.
- One out of two women will use long term care in their lifetime.
- The average man diagnosed with Alzheimer's uses 4.7 years of long term care.
- The average woman diagnosed with Alzheimer's uses 5.7 years of long term care.
- 39% of Medicaid (not Medicare) long term care recipients are under the age of 60
Hospitals, doctors and health insurance companies consider the crossover to long term care to occur when recovery from a health event is going to exceed 90 days, and a full recovery is unclear or not possible.
What about disability insurance? How does it differ from long term care insurance?
If someone has disability insurance then typically 66% of their income is replaced which goes towards their everyday cost of living, but what if as a result of their disability, they also need help with two or more of the above mentioned activities of daily living. In that case, they must hire caregivers to come into their home or pay to receive this care in a facility.
What about Medicare?
Most people are unaware that Medicare does not cover the cost of long term care beyond 100 days of skilled rehabilitative nursing care. You must have a 3 day in-patient hospital stay, and your Medicare supplement must cover the cost of the co-pay for days 21-100. The first 20 days are fully covered.
Long term insurance is an excellent option because it not only includes financial protection, but it is a plan that your spouse or family can implement without a crash course in care coordination. Care coordination is implemented by a professional coordinator who adheres to your wishes. By purchasing this protection you can shield your retirement savings from being used up by this type of care. This prevents family from having to start with the phonebook and proceed to learn what, where, who, how, and why. this can take a trmendous amount of time out of a family or friends life that they may not be able to afford due to a job or their family obligations.
When individuals cannot perform two of the six activities of daily living they become eligible to use their long term care insurance. A cognitive deficit also qualifies for full benefits even if you can do all six activities of daily living. These two different ways of triggering the use of your plan are certified by your personal physician or licensed healthcare practitioner. All plans have this written within them.
With medical science extending life but not necessarily the quality of life, people are using more long term care. Long-term insurance has become the number one way to protect against this type of financial catastrophe. It also protects family from having to take a leave from work or spend large amounts of time away from their spouse and children. In other words, it takes the burden off of family.
Being a caregiver is a demanding job. If you cannot self-insure without exhausting your savings in a few years, then shielding your nest egg and protecting your family’s security is attainable with a sensible long term care insurance plan.
Now is the time to find out about this important protection.