Who Needs Long-Term Care?
When you are still in good health and feeling too young to worry about the idea of needing care yourself one day, it is easy to skip over the concept of protecting yourself.
After all, there’s always tomorrow– or next year, right?
Here’s the problem: Every year you wait to secure some form of long term care protection, it will get about 8% more expensive. Why? For the same reason your social security income goes up every year you don’t take it. Social Security and all forms of insurance are based on a thing called mortality rates. The easy way to remember it is that each year, you are one year closer to your “personal expiration date”. No one tries to predict your actual date of death–the law of large numbers takes care of the problem. Insurance companies and the social security administration simply use the average age across the board for all Americans.
Therefore, each birthday, your Social Security picture looks better, your annuity in deferral looks better, but the cost of buying new life insurance, long term care insurance, or health insurance goes up. Why? Because you are now one year closer to claiming benefits from a probability and statistics standpoint. Insurance companies are not discriminating against you–they simply have a mathematical schedule they follow for pricing based on the odds they will have to pay you.
That’s why looking into long term care insurance now is always the best time. You will never be younger than you are today. And with new forms of “Hybrid” life insurance policies that convert to long term protection, and return every penny of your money if you end up not using the insurance, how can you go wrong?
A 7 In 10 Chance Of Needing It
So who will end up needing care? Seven out of ten people reading this post.
Some important facts and stats about long term care:
People may suddenly need long-term care after a crisis occurs, but for many, the need develops gradually. Older individuals are the primary users of long-term services, because functional disability increases with age. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the risk of needing LTC is fairly high. About 70 percent of individuals over age 65 will require some type of long-term care services during their lifetimes. Over 40 percent will need care in a nursing home for some period.
Factors that influence the risk of needing long-term care services include the following:
• age—Risk generally increases with age.
• marital status—Single people are more likely to need care from a paid provider.
• gender—Women are more likely than men to need long-term care, because women tend to live longer.
• lifestyle—Poor diet and exercise habits can increase the long-term care risk.
• health and family history—A family history of poor health may increase the risk of needing long-term care.
From a medical standpoint and in absolute medical terms, long-term care is chronic care with the aim of management, control of symptoms, and maintenance of function. Chronic care differs from traditional acute care, which is medical care aimed at treating physical problems directly in an attempt to permanently cure or control them.
You insure your home, you insure your car–each with very low odds of filing a major climb. With long term care, there is a 70% chance–7 in 10– that you will one day need some form of long term care assistance. Today’s cost of skilled nursing is $80,000 a year. Assisted living can be from $40,000 to $66,000 annually. In fifteen to twenty years, you can expect those figures to double. The good news: there are low cost solutions available now that entail no annual premiums, and a full return of your money if you end up not using the insurance.
Today would be a perfect day for you to explore your options. Just give me a ring or come to see me. There is no charge to learn your options–we’re here for you.
