Long-term Care Insurance
Protect your wealth and your dignity
Long-term care insurance goes beyond medical and nursing care. It covers all the care you would need if you were to become unable to care for yourself for an extended period of time due to a chronic illness or disability.
Long-term care insurance helps to protect your assets and preserve your dignity by allowing you to receive the care you need without becoming a burden to loved ones.
Why don’t most people have long-term care insurance?
Most people fail to plan for long-term care due to four misconceptions:
- I’ll never end up in a nursing home.
- It can’t be that expensive.
- My family will take care of me.
- My health insurance will cover it.
But did you know:
- Once you reach age 65, there is a 43% chance that you will spend some time in a nursing home.
- One in two people over age 85 requires care and assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs).1*
- Women often outlive their spouses, therefore facing a greater risk of needing long-term care by a paid caregiver.2
- The national average for annual nursing home costs is $57,700. That’s $4,808 a month or almost $158 a day!
- Your loved ones may not have the medical expertise, time, and financial means to give you the care you require.
- Medicare and most health insurance policies will not cover the cost of long-term care.
The risk of needing long-term care is real. Even if you have the resources to cover long-term care today, due to skyrocketing costs, the expense may be out of reach when you need care in the future.
Transfer the risk to an insurance company
Long-term care insurance allows you to transfer some of the financial risk of potential long-term care costs to an insurance company. It can cover a wide range of services—and help you remain independent.
Two basic levels of care
Policies generally cover the following basic levels of care:
- Custodial care (non-skilled)
Assistance with basic ADLs* that are typically needed following a stroke, disabling medical condition, or cognitive impairment like Alzheimer’s disease. Custodial care can be provided in nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, or at home. - Skilled care
Skilled care is for medically necessary nursing or rehabilitative services that can only be performed by skilled, licensed medical professionals. It can be provided in a hospital, rehabilitation center, skilled nursing facility or nursing home, or at home.
Benefits of long-term care insurance
Long-term care insurance has financial as well as emotional benefits:
- Helps protect assets
- Preserve retirement savings
- Avoid welfare
- Obtain tax benefits
- Helps preserve dignity
- Maintain standard of living
- Preserve independence
- Retain freedom of choice
Use this form to help you evaluate and compare long-term care policies:
Long-term care worksheet
A Financial Professional can help
Working with a Financial Professional has many benefits. They’ll analyze your financial needs—and help you develop plans to manage and meet your financial needs with confidence.
Next, you can read about planning for life’s important goals—both expected and unexpected events.
*ADLs include eating, toileting, bathing, transferring (from a bed to a chair), dressing, and continence.
Sources:
- Business Wire. August 5, 2003.
- Long-Term Care. U.S. General Accounting Office, Report GAO-01-563T.
