As you grow closer to retirement, the decision how to pay for potential long term care expenses should be a focus for most people. Long term care can be paid with a combination of personal or family savings, long term care insurance, and/or government assistance for those that qualify due to low incomes/assets. A major misconception is that many people (incorrectly) believe that Medicare will provide long term care. However, Medicare generally does not cover long term care. Medicare will only provide 100 days of nursing home care after a three day stay in a hospital. Medicaid will pay for long term care after most of your assets have been depleted, but Medicaid is usually limited to nursing home care.
I came across two interesting Long Term Care articles that I thought I’d share.
The first one is a "Health Affairs Blog" article by Lee-Lee Prina entitled: Do Americans Understand Long-Term Care?
Below are a couple excerpts from the article:
The survey looks at older Americans’ understanding of long-term care, what they know or do not know about the cost and likelihood of needing long-term care services, and “their attitudes and behaviors” about planning ahead for possible care needs, according to a press release.
Experts estimate that 70 percent of Americans who get to age sixty-five will need some type of long-term care, “and our findings show that many Americans are unprepared for this reality,” commented Trevor Tompson, who directs the AP-NORC Center, in the release.
Source was: http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2015/07/16/do-americans-understand-long-term-care/
No longer working web link.
The second article is from the Portland Press Herald by Matthew Craft entitled: Cost of long term care beyond reach for middle class elderly. Mentions some examples of the costs associated with long term care. One example was how things didn’t end so well in one case without Long Term Care insurance and then another example of how things did work out well in a different case by planning ahead by purchasing Long Term Care Insurance and also being creative with her solution.
Below is an excerpt from the article:
How do people manage the widening gap between their savings and the high cost of caring for the elderly? Medicare doesn’t cover long-term stays, so a large swath of elderly people end up on the government’s health insurance program for the poor, Medicaid. For those in the middle class, however, the answer isn’t so simple. They have too much money to apply for Medicaid but not enough to cover the typical three years of care.
To read the full article, click on the link below:
http://www.pressherald.com/2015/07/21/cost-of-long-term-care-beyond-reach-for-middle-class-elderly/
Contact me at (941) 404-5334 to discuss your long term care options and/or get you started on the right track of getting yourself insured.