Long Term Care Insurance 101

Hi, I'm Byron Udell, founder and CEO of AccuQuote. Since 1986, AccuQuote has helped millions of people save money on their insurance. Today, I'm here to provide you with some information about long-term care insurance. Whether or not you should consider buying long-term care insurance is based upon a number of factors, including the odds of needing it, as well as your ability to afford it without insurance if it turns out that you do need it. So let's first look at the odds. Most of us insure our homes against fire. It would seem crazy not to. Yours may be worth more or less, but the average price of a home nationwide is about $300,000, and the odds of it burning down? 1 in 1,200. Once you reach age 65, the odds of needing long-term care during your lifetime are about 70%. The odds of either you or your spouse needing it? About 91%. And if you do, it's incredibly expensive. The cost of a home health aid averages about $45,000 a year. That's today. Those numbers go up every year. A year in a nursing home in a major metro area? Roughly $90,000. Again, those are today's numbers, and they're rising every year. By the time you need it, it'll likely be a whole lot more. Multiply that by the number of years you may need care. The average is 3.5. And you can see that the potential cost is staggering. Now, if you're independently wealthy, worth millions, and can easily afford care that may end up costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps you want to roll the dice and take your chances. Alternatively, if you have no money, there are programs like Medicaid that can help with cost for the indigent. Ordinary Medicare does not cover long-term care. Most people in retirement have some savings. And if you don't want to see your entire nest egg and legacy depleted for your long-term care needs, or if you'd rather have some insurance to cover it, you may want to consider a long-term care policy. For purposes of long-term care policies and the ability to make a claim, if you need help with at least two of the six activities of daily living, you'll be eligible for benefits. The six ADLs are eating, using the restroom, moving around independently, continence, bathing or showering, and getting dressed. Again, if you can't do two or more of those six activities without assistance, or if you're diagnosed with a severe cognitive impairment such as dementia or Alzheimer's, then you'd be eligible to make a long-term care insurance claim to cover the cost of care either in your home, an assisted care facility, or in a nursing home. There are lots of different policies to cover long-term care. We can help you understand them all and find something that works for you so that you can keep your legacy intact and not have to worry about the cost of care when you need it. Anyone who's lived through the nightmare of needing long-term care, perhaps a parent or grandparent, knows that long-term care is expensive and stressful. We believe long-term care insurance is an important product, certainly as or more important than most of the other types of insurance you already own. There are even some new products now available that provide a pot of money for you to use for long-term care, but if you never end up needing it, the money will go to your kids or anyone else you choose when you die. That way, there's no way the premiums will end up being a waste of money if it turns out that you die suddenly one day, never having needed care. I really like this design and I just bought two of these policies, one for my wife and one for myself. If you'd like to learn more, call us today at the number on your screen. We'll provide you with all the information you need to make an intelligent decision. I hope this was helpful and thanks for listening.