Long-term Care Insurance

When an illness or injury prevents you from doing the daily activities of normal living this policy will provide a monthly amount to pay for needed care and assistance with doing things (i.e. preparing and eating meals, bath, dressing, getting in and out of bed and moving about, toileting).

You can buy a policy to pay for care just in a nursing home or in a nursing home plus your own home or thru/at other community sources: adult day care, respite care, assisted living facilities. A nursing home stay can be expensive, $28-35,000/year, but, you never know how much care you'll need nor at what level so, it takes some thinking and planning to decide how you'd want to live if your abilities are impaired.

Policies are designed by mixing waiting period, benefit period and monthly benefit amounts. You can also, for an extra premium add return of premium riders and cost of living riders. The cost of living rider works differently from that on a disability policy and is highly recommended. A long-term care policy's cost of living rider increases the monthly benefit amount from the date you buy the policy so that the monthly benefit can keep pace with inflation prior to you incurring expenses.

These policies should be considered by people in their 40's and 50's as part of their pre-retirement planning. The premiums are very low at these ages and you're usually healthy enough to qualify for them. Retired people who are older should consider them, as well. If for people in their 70's or 80's the cost is too high children might want to share in the cost, since they will usually end up trying to pay for a parent's care anyway, and this premium is a much less expense way to do that.

Each person's situation is different and like all insurance, long-term care insurance is not for everyone