Common Questions on Long Term Care

Long term care is something no one would ever dare to discuss during important family gathering or luncheon party; the exaggerating costs of health care services seem daunting for anyone trying to make both ends meet and earning on the middle tier.

 

So what is long term care? Why people try their best to avoid this in any conversation? Let’s discuss it without being too legalistic. The term “Long-term” simply refers to the length of period of time a person will need care.  “Care” denotes to the variety of services—medical, social, and personal—provided for people with physical and mental disorders.

 

More than half of the population will need long term care at some point in their lives. Unfortunately, most care services are provided outside the home, although most families prefer the latter, and the reality presents shocking rates of nursing homes and senior facilities. Any types of care will require help from family members or outside assistance from health aides, caregivers, and nurses.

Choosing the Right Approach to Long Term Care Planning

 

Many Americans have raised their eyebrows after hearing reports on the skyrocketing prices of long term care (LTC).  No one would ever dare compromising their lifetime savings for just a year in nursing home or assisted living, knowing that it would have damaging results to their loved ones. Learning that your parents or a loved one must be transferred in a facility or simply requires help from a caregiver, and you need more than half a million to  sustain a year for long term care, is one of the tragic news you’ll ever hear.

 

As life expectancy becomes longer than expected, millions of Americans will be affected since the majority of the senior population doesn’t have concrete retirement plans and insurance, and many are heavily dependent on government health care programs. Only a fraction of Americans have anticipated the likelihood of entering nursing homes or acquiring long-term illness and/or disability, so no wonder why a lot of senior folks and caregiving families are suffering the consequences of bad planning and decision-making. Even the healthiest people today may suffer any degenerative or geriatric diseases in the future. And, in fact, this proves that no one is in control of the future and one of the ways—next to faith—to lessen the weight of uncertainty is to entrust your future in long term care insurance.

 

However, many individuals commit mistakes when dealing with LTC because of lack of tact and knowledge on the subject. For them, it’s like treating a wound that may disappear overnight; but the reality is (as the name suggests) it can’t be resolved in a day or two.

 

The biggest mistake people commit when planning for future health care is they spend their entire savings on LTC services without looking at the dangers of becoming bankrupt and invalid at the same time. Relying on Medicaid and/or Medicare should be stripped off on your “dependency” list.

Making Respite Care Cheaper

The results of cost of long term care in last year’s survey stirred disappointment among millions of Americans who are advancing in age and are caring for loved ones with illnesses or disability. The nation’s average rate for nursing home’s private room increased 4.4% from $229 in 2010 to $239 in 2011. The assisted living rate also increased from 5.6% from $3,293 in 2010 to $3,477 in 2011.5.6%

With those figures alone, anyone will be frightened to spend at least a year in a facility and feel guilty being sick or invalid. The sandwich generation will bear the brunt of their aging parents or loved ones, and will be affected with the extremely high cost of care.

Unfortunately, adult day care also increased its rates, but remains the least expensive form of care in the country. Adult day centers have the national average rate of $6/day versus the average rate for home health aides of $19/hour. The reason for adult day cares much lower price is they are run by many non-profit organizations. According to survey, there are more than 4,600 adult day cares registered in U.S and become a haven for 150,000 American adults each day.

 

In fact, keeping a loved one in an adult day care is one of the families choose to save on respite care. Caregivers who wish to get out from the shackles of stress brought by caregiving may keep their loved ones in adult day cares. Adult day centers provide opportunities for family caregivers to regain strength and keep sanity at bay

Planning Long Term Care with your Parents

Your parents are getting older, and you’re probably worried that they might need care or get admitted in a much expensive facility few years from now.  It’s quite rare nowadays for elders in their 60s to maintain healthy mind and body, since more and more people—both young and old–are crippled with illnesses or disability as result of their lifestyle.

Now, let’s go straight to the point. The reason you’re anxious about your parent’s future care is you might be paying the hefty hospital bills, the caregiver’s monthly wage, and worst, the costly accommodation in a nursing home, because your parents have not anticipated their future health and their retirement savings would not suffice the devastating long term care costs.

Anyone who has experienced planning for long term care would exclaim the difficulty in starting a feasible plan, but the good results you will reap out of early preparation are thrice your stress and effort. One of the challenges is discussing your plans with your parents. Nevertheless, it would be better to inform your parents about your plans so this could best serve their interest.

Some of the aspects you need to evaluate with your parents are but not limited to  the following:

• care options
• type of long-term care the family can afford
• the possibility of buying long term care insurance
• assets that can be sold when the family runs out of budget or when rejected by insurance company
• the person/s responsible for care-giving
•  other financing alternatives?
• legal documents that may be needed

Rethinking of Long Term Care Insurance Option

The number of Americans who are becoming aware of the drawbacks of long term care has increased, but the percentage of people braving the LTCi scene remains low. Does it mean that Americans are not learning from their grandparents’ experiences?

 

Reality check: people already know the consequences but long term care insurance can never be on top of their list for couple of reasons—the most common is whether it is beneficial or not.

 

The public has keen eye on the pros and cons, testing if the economy will launch competitive returns should they throw off large chunks on premiums. LTCi premiums are not just soaring rapidly, many established insurance companies have shut down recently, warning the public that LTCi may not be a a good solution.

 

 

Despite controversies, why long term care insurance steals the spotlight?

 

Have you ever wondered why? I’m pretty sure you’ve heard a lot of negative things about LTCI, leaving you discouraged and skeptical whether to give it a try or not.

 

 

The recent rates of LTC services in the country could result to crippling debt among millions of middle-class Americans.  With rates so expensive, most financial analysts agree that purchasing an LTCi policy will be a sound investment to go with the flow. Nevertheless, the individual must purchase LTCi policy early before any signs of illnesses manifest.