|
Long-Term Care Insurance, not to be confused with disability insurance, offers people a financial safety net
designed to cover a wide range of long-term care services. If you are unable to care for yourself because of prolonged illness or disability, long-term care insurance may pay for the kind of services you need. Such services may include help with activities of daily living, home health care, respite care, adult day care, care in a nursing home or care in an assisted living facility.
- Some federal and/or state income tax advantages are available to people who buy certain long-term care insurance policies.
- You can pay for LTC insurance premiums with your HSA account.
- Medicare does not pay for most long term care. Medicaid will generally only pay for long-term care if you have very little income and few assets.
- Baby boomers are expected to live longer than any preceding generation and could place high demands on family caregivers.
- Having long-term care insurance allows disabled elders to remain in their homes and delay or avoid using institutional services.
- Disabled elders with private long-term care insurance receive an average of 14 more hours of personal care per week than similarly disabled non-privately insured elders.
- Having a long-term care insurance policy reduces by 66 percent a person’s chances of having to spend his or her assets to pay for nursing home care to the point of impoverishment and Medicaid eligibility.
- Working age family caregivers double their chances of remaining in the workforce if the disabled elder they are caring for has private long-term care insurance. These caregivers also experience significantly fewer work disruptions and social stresses.
- There's about a 50 percent chance you'll need some type of long-term care after age 65. And long-term care services are not just for older people. A young or middle-aged person who has been in an accident or suffered a debilitating illness may very well require long-term care services. In fact, 40 percent of patients receiving long-term care are under age 65.
|