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Life Health > Long-Term Care Planning

Let's do what we can

By Richard Spall

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If we as a country were serious about marketing long-term care insurance (LTCI), we should have a billboard on every interstate in the USA depicting an 80-year-old woman or gentleman in a diaper, with the caption, “Who will change me?”

This is, of course, not politically correct, but, for a dementia-afflicted family, any long-term care policy is worth the benefits whether it can pay 100 percent, or provide only respite for the caretaker.

I often make the statement that the payment of my long-term care policy has precedence over my cable TV bill.

It is no more complicated than that.

Too many Americans think they can afford their cell phones and their cable TV, but not an insurance policy that provides for their care and alleviates the financial responsibility of their care from their family and their relatives and offspring.

Everyone who needs care cannot afford to pay for their own care, but many can and don’t.

My father had en extended stay in a dementia facility for about eight years. The cost of this was probably about $400,000. He paid this out of pocket as he was a fiercely independent, successful businessman whose first job was on the railroad rip track. He would have been ashamed to have the government pay for his care.

It occurred to me in my early fifties that I may not be able to fund my own care as my father did, so I bought a long-term care policy. The current benefits are $365 per day for 10 years, with a total benefit of $1,335,000.

The policy comes from is a private insurance carrier and costs about $2,000 per year. If the premium rises beyond what I can afford, I will reduce some benefits.

Just the random thoughts of an American who sees the country slipping towards the nanny state.

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