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 Long Term Care
Long Term Care coverage provides protection for your assets against the high cost of long term care. It also protects your family from the emotional, physical and financial stress of care giving. Coverage is available for both home care and facility benefits, and in many forms including LTC insurance, specially designed life insurance policies with LTC riders, Annuities, Reverse mortgages, and more. It’s important to consider all forms of coverage when making a decision about how you will protect your assets.
“Long-term care (LTC) is extremely expensive. Yet despite the cost, few seniors have a viable plan to pay for long term care. Will you – or a family member – be writing checks out of your life savings? Or will you fund Long Term Care another way?”*
Most Long Term Care insurance will pay for itself with only a short need for care. The return on investment in a Long Term Care policy is excellent.
Long Term Care coverage does protect your assets. We protect our cars, our houses, our lives, but forget to protect our financial security against the single most expensive medical cost – Long Term Care. The average person uses up all their assets within the first 6 months of receiving long term care and is required to go on Medicaid subsidy to continue to receive the care they need.
Reasons for having Long Term Care coverage:
- Preserve finances for spouse
- Preserve children’s inheritance
- Protect children from having to give up jobs and family life to care for you.
- Protect spouse from physical and mental health risks associated with care giving.
- Insure best care and best care options when LTC is needed.
- Can receive care in the home – and family can still be involved.
You cannot rely on Medicare to cover your long term care needs. Most long term care needs are custodial - someone to help with bathing, eating, dressing, moving around, toileting, etc. Medicare does not cover custodial care - only minimal skilled care such as intermittent skilled nursing care, physical, occupational and speech therapies, or up to 100 days in a Skilled Nursing Facility – if you qualify*. It’s not enough.
Not everyone needs Long Term Care Insurance. Whether you should buy a long term care insurance policy will depend on your age, health status, overall retirement goals, income, and assets. Your advisor should consider all things when making a recommendation on whether you need it, how much coverage you need, and what the best method of coverage is. Work with someone who has experience to find the right choices for your long term care needs. At OFM we have that experience.
* Senior Spirit™ Newsletter, a publication of the Society of Certified Senior Advisors™)
** Medicare & You - 2007, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publication.
To receive a quote on Long Term Care coverage, click here.
If you would like to speak to an OFM Benefits Consulting representative about Long Term Care, click here or call 888-293-7923.
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