- Make sure your insurance agent is licenced in your state to sell long-term care insurance.
- Look over all the policy's details and options. Don't just go by the marketing materials or the summary of coverage.
- Before you buy a policy, make sure you understand all of the terms.
- Ask your insurance agent questions. Talk to the state insurance commission, the Area Agency on Aging, or senior centres in your area for advice. Talk about policies with people whose opinions you value, like friends, family, and others. Take your time when picking a policy, and don't give in to pressure to choose quickly. And don't ever pay cash.
It's not easy to decide whether or not to buy long-term care insurance, but careful research and careful planning now can give you and your family peace of mind and financial security for the future.
What does long-term care mean?
People who need long-term help get a variety of nursing, social, and rehabilitative services as part of long-term care. Most of the people in long-term care facilities are older, but many young people need long-term care because they are sick for a long time or because they were in an accident.
The most common type of long-term care service is help with daily tasks like bathing, dressing, eating, going to the bathroom, and taking medications. Long-term care facilities also offer skilled nursing and rehabilitation care, which is ordered by a doctor and supervised by a nurse or licenced therapist with the right skills.
Long-term care is available in a number of places.
Nursing homes are the main places where people who need medical care every day or sometimes go. For admission to a nursing home, you need a written treatment plan from a doctor that lists the services you need. Most short stays in a nursing home are to recover from an acute medical event, like a broken hip or surgery.
People who are still mobile and independent can live in assisted living facilities or residential care facilities. These places offer general supervision, housekeeping services, medical monitoring, and planned social, recreational, and spiritual activities. Medical care is not given at assisted living facilities.
Care services at a facility include skilled nursing care, speech, physical, or occupational therapy, help from facility health aides, or help from people who work at the facility. With the help of facility aides and skilled professionals, sometimes family members or caregivers provide most of the care.
In many places, there are day care services for adults that offer personal care, skilled care, and fun activities.
Long-term care costs and money problems
Long-term care costs depend on the level of care needed, where the care is given, and where the person lives. Costs are not comparable because nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and facility care services all offer different levels of care to their residents.
Long-term care services that are available around the clock in a nursing home cost about $40,000 per year, or $112 per day.
The cost of assisted living can range from $900 to $3000 per month, depending on the size of the room, the amenities offered, and the services needed.
If someone needs daily care in a facility, this can also be very expensive. In 1996, the average cost of a registered nurse (RN) visit to a facility was $99. Most RN visits for care in a facility don't last more than 2–4 hours per day, so care isn't available all the time.
On average, eight hours of day care for adults can cost $45 per day.
Care in a Nursing Home: About a third of the cost of care in a nursing home is paid directly by the person or their family. Some of your care may be paid for by two government programmes.
Medicare is a health insurance programme for people 65 and older. It only covers skilled facility care and up to 100 days of skilled care in a nursing home if you are admitted after a three-day hospital stay (not required if you have an HMO) and your doctor writes skilled care into your treatment plan. People often think that Medicare is the main source of money for nursing home stays, but Medicare only pays for 9 percent of nursing home costs.
Medicaid, a programme for the poor, pays for about half of the nursing home care in the United States, but only for people who have almost no money left and are poor. Medicaid is the source of payment for nearly 70% of people in nursing homes. This is because they did not plan for long-term care.
Unless you have long-term care insurance, meet certain conditions to be covered by Medicare, or become poor, you will have to pay for nursing home care out of your savings.
Assisted Living: About 90% of the money used to pay for assisted living services in the United States comes from private sources. Some assisted living services are paid for by the Supplemental Security Income programme, the Older Americans Act, and the Social Services Block Grant programme. About one-fifth of the states also let the federal Medicaid programme pay for some service parts.
Care in a facility: About 46% of the costs of care in a facility are paid for by private funds, 32% by Medicare, and 22% by Medicaid.
There are some out-of-pocket costs for adult day care, but most of the money comes from the government, either just the state or, in some states, Medicare and Medicaid as well. Adult day care costs are also helped by private donations from businesses and charities like the United Way.
When Should You Get Long-Term Care Insurance?
Long-term care insurance premiums are based on how old you are when you buy a policy. This means that the younger you are when you buy a policy, the less your annual premium will be. Most of the time, these premiums stay the same every year as you age. If you buy a $800-a-year policy when you're 55, you'll keep paying the same premium. If you wait until you're 65, on the other hand, the same policy will cost you $1,700 per year.
What to Look for in an Insurance Policy
The best policy for you depends on a number of things, like how your family is set up, how much money you have, what kind of long-term care you want, and how much risk you are willing to take. No one company or policy is the best for everyone. You should choose an insurance plan that fits your needs.
Make sure you know what you're getting and who you're getting it from before you buy a policy. Make sure your agent is licenced to sell insurance in your state and has specific training on long-term care insurance. Consult with friends, consumer guides, and the insurance counselling programme or local agency on ageing in your state.
