Quote:
Originally Posted by Pianoman
Thanks for the advice folks!
Just as True Believer mentioned, I had a financial consultant tell me not to get a policy until age 60. I'm now 52, so I think I'll wait a few years at least.
After researching, I found some interesting statistics.
- The most important concept to understand is that long-term care insurance policies will not protect a person's savings.
- Despite the claims of sales personnel, most policies are so flawed that if agents were honest about the policies' limitations, many customers would probably not purchase them at all.
- Assuming my policy is purchased at age 52 and remains in effect until age 80, the age by which 50% of all seniors will need a nursing home, I will have paid in the neighborhood of $84,000, which is the cost of a year of nursing home care! Since 65% stay shorter than a year in a nursing home, to me the best bet is to put the monthly payment amount into a special savings account or mutual fund to draw interest. By age eighty, I would have approx $217,157 in that savings account which should be enough to pay for well over a year in a nursing home.
- The National Association of Insurance Commissioners reports that 16% of all nursing home insurance buyers drop their coverage each year because they can no longer afford it. Insurance companies know that of those who buy coverage at age sixty, 95% will have cancelled the coverage by age 80! The reason: After retirement, the payments are too high to absorb with their limited income.
- Most policies cover only "skilled" care. "Skilled" care is insurance language meaning services provided by a doctor or a nurse. Most "skilled" care is already covered by Medicare and most Medicare supplemental insurance, making policies covering only "skilled" coverage absolutely and totally worthless. Nearly 50% of people receiving nursing home services do not require skilled care.
- Most policies have coverage that only start when there is inability to perform three or more Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). The commonly recognized ADLs are: bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring (getting in and out of a chair or bed), and continence (voluntary bowel and bladder functions). Approximately 2.9 million U.S. citizens need assistance with only one or two ADLs. A policy that requires assistance with three or more ADLs is designed and intended to rarely offer benefits to the policyholder.
- "Service based" not "disability based" coverage. According to Consumer Reports "the most liberal coverage would be provided by policies that allowed policyholders to obtain services wherever they wish when disabled." This is known as disability-based coverage. No long-term care policies have been discovered that meet this standard for nursing-home care. Instead, current policies are "service-based," so that regardless of the type or level of disability, policyholders are limited to receiving particularly defined services at specific facilities.
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Interesting facts Pianoman, and I don't dispute that.
What about this scenario, you turn 65 & retire, within a few years (God Forbid) your healthy deteriorates & the decision is to put you in the Care home & there you live amother 8-10 years before passing on?
What then?
My Aunt had a massive stroke when she turned 72 it left her paralyzed & unable top talk again.
She survived for another 7 years before passing away.
Guess where thier kids inheritance went?
I am not disputing your points they are good, but consider all scenarios first.
God Bless!
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