According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, at least 70 percent of Americans over the age of 65 will require long-term care services. As the costs associated with long-term care provided in skilled nursing facilities continues to grow, more Americans consider purchasing long-term care insurance. A recent article discusses whether long-term care insurance is right for you.
Long-term care insurance reimburses a person daily or monthly for care received by the policyholder. The price of a policy will necessarily vary depending on the age of the policyholder when he or she applied, how much coverage the policy provides, how many years coverage will be provided, and how long it will be until benefits begin.
Often, people who may need long-term care insurance fail to take out a policy because they falsely believe that Medicare will cover the costs of any long-term needs they require. However, Medicare only pays 100 percent of a person’s costs for the first 20 days. For days 21 through 100, a person will have to pay the first $140/day in expenses, and Medicare will pay the rest. After the first 100 days, the patient is responsible for all expenses incurred in the skilled nursing facility.
If you have long-term care insurance already, you may be in the best position. More and more insurance companies are getting out of this business as long-term care costs rise and more people call on the policies (making it a bad business deal for the insurance company – which betting on you NOT getting sick).
For this reason, a legal planning solution may be the most prudent (or even the only one available) for people wanting to plan for the costs of long-term care.