The good news is that we are living much long then our parent’s and those decades ago, however Americans are not in the best of health in their senior years. Everyone should be making plans for their health needs during their retirement years, and what they need to prepare financially for varies depending on income, assets, lifestyle, and health. Seniors over 85 years of age are most likely to need long term care, however also younger couples in their 60’s are needing long term care for various health reasons that they were not expecting. The US Dept. of Health concludes that people aged 65 years old will have a 40% chance of requiring some form of long term care services and around 10% of them will need long term care services for 5 or more years.
It’s almost impossible for a family to save up enough funds to pay for long term care, while maintaining the current quality of life and standard of living that include things like a mortgage, and other big expenses. Long term care services can easily eat away a couples life savings if they become one of the unfortunate few who require long term care at an early age.
Care for long term needs includes medical as well as non medical care for individuals that have a illness, chronic sickness, long or short term disability, either long or short term. It can include activities such as dressing, batching, and eating, and can be provided at a facility or at the individuals home.
For people that have made plans and invested in a long term care insurance policy will have the freedom to choose the best care available, the location, and without the need to tap into their life savings. Their assets will be protected because long term care insurance will provide the funds to pay for their long term care needs. Its difficult enough to have enough savings to maintain your lifestyle while in retirement, but to take on the extra burden of having to save for your future long term care needs might seem impossible or delay retirement. With long term care insurance its make the decision and options much more simple and safe for an individual and couple.
Planning for long term care has been overlooked by more than 80% of individuals that could have benefited from it. People typically think Medicare will cover their long term care costs, or most people never realize that they will need long term care services and just don’t know that long term care insurance is available. While healthy individuals can try to reduce the chances of requiring the need for long term care, they forget that is not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.
Investing in long term care insurance can bring to individuals, couples, and family’s, peace of mind knowing that your long term care needs will be met with the freedom of choice to determine when and where. Additionally knowing that your assets will be protected allowing you to not use up your assets in the case of a health emergency.
The right time to buy is sooner rather than later. Not only does the premium cost increase for those applying later in life, your chances of qualify can become greatly reduced the older one gets, and sometimes not qualifying at all.
For those interested in self insuring we recommend doing your research to determine how much you will need to cover 3-5 years of expenses. Using our website you can find the costs of care in your state and use our calculators to determine the amount of funds you need to save every year before you reach a certain age of when you “THINK” you will need long term care. Lastly compare your ability to save with a long term care insurance quote to determine which route can be easier and more cost effective.
