Rising life expectancy means that the potential need for “long term care” grows with every passing year of your life. The likelihood is that you or a member of your family will need long term assistance due to a prolonged illness, a disability, or general deterioration of your health and ability to perform routine daily activities. Most long term care expenses are not covered by Social Security or Medicare, Medicare Supplement (“Medigap”), or private health insurance. Medicaid pays for nearly half of all nursing home care, but you must meet federal poverty guidelines and may have to “spend down” most of your assets on health care.

Today the annual cost of home health care ranges anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000 for three shifts per day. The annual cost of nursing home care is likely to be double that — and one year of high quality nursing home care can total well over $100,000!!! Because Medicare, Medicare Supplement (“Medigap”), and private health insurance plans generally don’t pay for nursing home care or home health care, your personal assets will be left unprotected. The long term care bills you incur can deplete them and possibly even eliminate them altogether!

Believe it or not, long term care is an issue that will eventually affect 8 out of 10 families and individuals directly or indirectly! That means there’s an 80% chance it will affect you and the people around you, and you may be risking the financial future of your family or heirs by not planning ahead! Several options are available, but the choice for many is Long Term Care (LTC) insurance. By trading off a small known cost now for an unknown, potentially unlimited one later, you can preserve your savings and other assets. Not only can you purchase long term care insurance for yourself, but also for other family members, such as a parent or your spouse. This is a very effective way to preserve an estate!

As an independent insurance agent, we can survey the marketplace on your behalf and then recommend a long term health care program that best fulfills your individual needs so you can pay for any necessary long term care while preserving your assets for your families. If you’ve ever considered what could happen to the security of your family’s financial future, you owe it to yourself and your loved ones to find out how such planning can work for you!