Who Should Buy Long Term Care Insurance?

For many people, they have yet to hear of long term care insurance. Many think immediately of long term disability insurance upon the first mention of ltc insurance, but it is not even close to being the same type of insurance product.

Long term care insurance pays for caregiving, and disability insurance replaces a portion of income. These are two distinct functions. Since disability insurance will typically replace 50%, 60% or 66% of your income, this leaves less money to cover bills that already existed before a person even considers who they will pay for a necessary caregiver.

A caregiver becomes necessary if you are unable to accomplish your activities of daily living. Most people need a caregiver or multiple caregivers if they cannot accomplish two of the recognized activities of daily living. These activities are eating, dressing, bathing, toileting, continence, and transferring (moving from point A to point B unassisted). In some states a seventh activity of daily living is recognized, ambulation and mobility. When a person is unable to do two of these activities without help, if they have long term care insurance, it will begin to pay for a portion or all of the care giving depending on their chosen benefits at the time of application.

So, long term care insurance pays for the caregivers. Disability pays for the household bills. Well, the question now can be asked, who needs long term care insurance? Everybody. It is not just something we should consider when we start to find Bingo incredibly entertaining. Almost 40% of Medicaid recipients using long term care are under the age of 60 years old. Any of us could need care at any time. Young people are diagnosed at an alarming rate with chronic illnesses such as MS or Lupus. We just cannot tell the future.

Some people reading this may think that they should not buy long term care insurance because they can afford care indefinitely. That is a strong argument against buying insurance until you discover that your checkbook cannot make phone calls and schedule five different types of care per week while monitoring how caregivers are performing and treating you. This burden would still fall on your kids, family or close friends. This is a burden. Even if you contracted out for those services by spending more money, you still need to have an entire strategy or plan written out for your kids or family to implement because you may have trouble communicating if you need long term care. Besides, long term care insurance is most affordable to those with larger amounts of savings. Spending $100 to $500 per month for insurance (depending on your age, benefits and health) is better than spending $4000 to $8000 per month for care out of your own pocket. Our long term care insurance site explains how the nuts and bolts of the this insurance works, and if you have less than a certain amount of savings, it may not be right for you. Bottom line, everyone should know about it and investigate it. It is too costly to remain in the dark.