Startling Facts About Long-Term Care

Did you know that …

• At least 70% of people over 65 will need long-term care services and support at some point in their lives.
  (Source: 2015 Medicare & You, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
• About 68% of nursing home residents and 72% of assisted living residents are women.
  (Source: Long-Term Care Services in the United States: 2013 Overview, National Center for Health Statistics)
• The national median daily rate in 2014 for a private room in a nursing home was $240, an increase of 4.35% from 2013.
  (Source: Genworth 2014 Cost of Care Survey, March 2014)
• The average length of a nursing home stay is 835 days—or more than two years. But I had a several relatives, both with Alzheimer’s, who were in homes for five years.
  (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nursing Home Care FastStats, last updated May 2014)
• At a median daily rate of $240, an average nursing home stay of 835 days currently costs over $200,000, making it virtually unaffordable for many Americans. (The average hotel room is just $121/day!)
• Medicare does not pay for long-term care services, as explained by the Social Security Administration: “Social Security pays retirement, disability, family and survivors benefits. Medicare, a separate program run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, helps pay for inpatient hospital care, nursing care, doctors’ fees, drugs, and other medical services and supplies to people age 65 and older, as well as to people who have been receiving Social Security disability benefits for two years or more. Medicare does not pay for long-term care, so you may want to consider options for private insurance (emphasis added).”

Without proper planning, a serious accident or illness could rob you of your financial independence. Whether purchased for yourself, your spouse or for an aging parent, long-term care insurance can help protect assets accumulated over a lifetime from the ravages of long-term care costs.

Individual Long Term Care Insurance

Long Term Care insurance provides coverage when you and your dependents are no longer able to perform everyday tasks due to chronic illness, injury, disability or the aging process. Coverage is also offered for those who are suffering from a severe cognitive complaint, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Long-term care insurance typically covers home care, assisted living, adult daycare, respite care, hospice care, nursing home and Alzheimer’s facilities. Home care coverage usually pays for a visiting or live-in caregiver, companion, housekeeper, therapist or private duty nurse up to seven days a week, 24 hours a day (up to the policy benefit maximum).

Reasons for Purchasing Long Term Care

• Long term care insurance will help cover out-of-pocket expenses which you and your family would otherwise have to pay. The cost of providing these services could well deplete all yours savings.
• Your long term insurance premiums may be eligible for an income tax deduction. The amount of the deduction depends on the age of the covered person. Benefits paid from a long term care contract are generally excluded from income.
• Medicaid does provide some of the benefits of long term care insurance: medically necessary services for people with limited resources who “need nursing home care but can stay at home with special community care services.”  However, Medicaid generally does not cover long term care provided in a home setting or for assisted living. People who need long term care often prefer to be cared for at home or in a private room in an assisted living facility.

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