Long-Term Care Insurance

[cycloner29]

I keep hearing yes and no on this. Our financial advisor mentioned long-term care insurance just to let us know it is out there. I'm amazed that long-term care insurance is more costly for women than men. Almost twice as much. A monthly max benefit for instance of $5,000 for me is around $112/month. For my wife for same max benefit is $216/month. We are both in our 50's so we are just exploring long term care options down the road. Looking to hear what other that are looking down the road at this have to say. Sure long term care is pretty pricey and will only get more expensive, but wondering if this a waste of money or not. TIA.

 

[nfrine]

I keep hearing yes and no on this. Our financial advisor mentioned long-term care insurance just to let us know it is out there. I'm amazed that long-term care insurance is more costly for women than men. Almost twice as much. A monthly max benefit for instance of $5,000 for me is around $112/month. For my wife for same max benefit is $216/month. We are both in our 50's so we are just exploring long term care options down the road. Looking to hear what other that are looking down the road at this have to say. Sure long term care is pretty pricey and will only get more expensive, but wondering if this a waste of money or not. TIA.

Visit a nursing home lately? 80-90% women. The guys got killed off earlier.

 

[IcSyU]

I keep hearing yes and no on this. Our financial advisor mentioned long-term care insurance just to let us know it is out there. I'm amazed that long-term care insurance is more costly for women than men. Almost twice as much. A monthly max benefit for instance of $5,000 for me is around $112/month. For my wife for same max benefit is $216/month. We are both in our 50's so we are just exploring long term care options down the road. Looking to hear what other that are looking down the road at this have to say. Sure long term care is pretty pricey and will only get more expensive, but wondering if this a waste of money or not. TIA.

Women on average live longer so the policy will end up paying out more. Makes sense to me.

 

[JimmyChitwood]

Some life insurance policies will have riders that can pay out for long term care. Check with your insurance agent about such policies.

 

[MeanDean]

It's the karmic balance for all the extra we paid as guys for car insurance in our teens and twenties.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

We looked into it a couple of years ago as we were getting ready for retirement, had two company's run the numbers and the price we were getting was between $500 to $1000 a month. Most would only pay the nursing home for set amount of years generally around 10 and then they cut you off. The average stay in a nursing home is between 13 months to 24 months, we figured we would be better off taking that money and putting it in a account and if we need it for a nursing home its there, if not our kids would get it.

 

[brianhos]

I did the math on it, it caps out so low that if you just invested the $$ to begin with you would have more than the benefit.

 

[Cychl82]

I keep hearing yes and no on this. Our financial advisor mentioned long-term care insurance just to let us know it is out there. I'm amazed that long-term care insurance is more costly for women than men. Almost twice as much. A monthly max benefit for instance of $5,000 for me is around $112/month. For my wife for same max benefit is $216/month. We are both in our 50's so we are just exploring long term care options down the road. Looking to hear what other that are looking down the road at this have to say. Sure long term care is pretty pricey and will only get more expensive, but wondering if this a waste of money or not. TIA.

Thankfully I took advantage of this when I was in my early 30s. Its almost doubled to 78/mo but my last projection is that it would cover just under $6000/mo. Tough call on if its worth the amounts youre referring to but personally if it was me Id really lean that way.

 

[Tailg8er]

You've been paying for long term care insurance since your early 30's??? How much would you have in a brokerage account had you put the same amount in an index fund?

That seems like overkill on the surface, unless you had pre-markers suggesting you'd be in a nursing home at 50 or something?

 

[Clonehomer]

I did the math on it, it caps out so low that if you just invested the $$ to begin with you would have more than the benefit.

That makes sense though. The idea of insurance is to pool your risk so everyone pays for an event for a small amount of people. Everyone gets old and a majority of people will end up in nursing homes. So the pool to user rate has got to be much smaller than that of home owners or even health insurance. Cause, there’s a lot less likelihood that your house is going to get hit by a tornado than you getting old.

So, a savings plan makes a lot more sense than a for profit company just holding on to your money for you.

 

[BCClone]

There are a lot of options on these so it’s hard to go apples to apples. Some are for X years. My MIL has 3 years with one extra for assisted living. (Her policy will stop paying by end of the year). There are also deductibles. My mom went with a 1 year deductible (she had savings and income to cover) and had 130/day coverage with a 5% annual inflator. She was in a nursing home for 3 months. Her supplemental insurance would cover the extra that Medicare wouldn’t for up to 100 days after a hospital stay. Care centers will file for that and use that since it pays better.

What I don’t like is the care center will demand financial statements on customers and want to know everything they have. I refused to give that for my mom. I told the. She has X acres of farmland which the rent will cover it without touching SS,her house or cash. They were total Aholes. I threatened that she liked just go elsewhere and they backed off on it.

 

[Tailg8er]

That makes sense though. The idea of insurance is to pool your risk so everyone pays for an event for a small amount of people. Everyone gets old and a majority of people will end up in nursing homes. So the pool to user rate has got to be much smaller than that of home owners or even health insurance. Cause, there’s a lot less likelihood that your house is going to get hit by a tornado than you getting old.

So, a savings plan makes a lot more sense than a for profit company just holding on to your money for you.

I don't think that's true...

 

[1SEIACLONE]

There are a lot of options on these so it’s hard to go apples to apples. Some are for X years. My MIL has 3 years with one extra for assisted living. (Her policy will stop paying by end of the year). There are also deductibles. My mom went with a 1 year deductible (she had savings and income to cover) and had 130/day coverage with a 5% annual inflator. She was in a nursing home for 3 months. Her supplemental insurance would cover the extra that Medicare wouldn’t for up to 100 days after a hospital stay. Care centers will file for that and use that since it pays better.

What I don’t like is the care center will demand financial statements on customers and want to know everything they have. I refused to give that for my mom. I told the. She has X acres of farmland which the rent will cover it without touching SS,her house or cash. They were total Aholes. I threatened that she liked just go elsewhere and they backed off on it.

This was the major reason we set up a trust last year, we have to have all our assets in the trust for 5 years, but after that point, a nursing home cannot ask about your assets as a way to determine your bill. The cost of long term care for someone like a spouse that has had a stroke or something and can live in the facility for years has caused a few farmers I know to divorce their spouse so they did not lose the farm to the nursing home.

 

[Die4Cy]

Be careful what you are purchasing. Many plans do not kick in benefits until you spend a month of continuous time in a care facility, meaning a significant number of people who have these policies that reach an end of life or hospice situation pass away before getting any assistance.

 

[jackrabbit]

Question - what is your family history regarding dementia and Alzheimer's? If your family has much history for either, long term care might be worth the cost. Do you want to place the responsibility on your kids to take care of you 24/7 365 if you have dementia or Alzheimer's?

 

[bos]

My parents both had long term care insurance. My dad unfortunately didnt get a chance to use it, but he did make it to 81 before cancer got him quickly. However, my mom who lived for about 4 more years after that needed home care as she was very diabetic and had other health issues that I couldnt manage on my own. My dad was her primary caretaker so we needed someone to come in home and help her throughout the day. LTC came through on that and she used about 80-90% of the policy payout (4 years worth) during her time alive. If she didnt have that in place, she would have had to start dissolving investments and such to cover it early on.

My parents were pretty smart to put that in motion. Even if one didnt use it. Definitely opened my eyes. Now, I guess you could take into consideration, your health and family history. Plus whatever your financial situation and take a gamble.

 

[RLD4ISU]

We've talked about LTC ins, but have not pursued actually getting a quote. I've heard you have to be very thorough with reading what the plan does/doesn't cover, for how long and when it kicks in.

I've also been talking to my Dad a lot more about what all Medicare and supplemental insurance covers, plus the costs.

 

[mkadl]

Good reading, I will be 65 in 18 days, and the little girl in my avatar just turned 16 yesterday. Holy crap where did the time go? My mother is 100 + 10 months. She is in assisted living -$2,800.00 a month. I have always liked my odds with investing versus long term care plans. I think full blown nursing home is around $7,000.00 a month. Memory care cost, I dont have a clue.

 

[dmclone]

Tiny non profit nursing home in northern Iowa runs $320/day($9,700 month). They basically run you out of money and then medicaid takes over. Unfortunately going through this process right now with a parent. The truth is that it doesn't really matter at this point. The only thing she ever spends money on is insurance, drugs(legal), and groceries. Oh she also spends money on heat. When I was a kid she kept it 72 in the house year round. Now it seems to be about 82 year round.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

The earlier in age you purchase the program the cheaper it is, is what we found out last year when we were doing our research. The plans were not too expensive up until about age 55, since we were in our early 60's the price was starting to jump up then.
If I remember correctly the Gold Plan which went for around $1200 a month until you needed it, covered everything from that point forward, you could also do a one time payment of $50/60K that would cover you the rest of life. Other plans were for a limited amount of years, generally 10.