When people consider the subject of long-term care, they often think about nursing homes. In fact long-term care has little to do with nursing homes. Understanding the difference can help you protect your family and finances.
Long-term care is a continuum of care services and housing you will need when you live a long life. Think you won’t live a long life? Think back 25 years ago. If you had a heart attack, cancer or a stroke, you simply died. Few ever heard of Alzheimer’s.
Today it is the leading cause for long-term care services. The longer you live, the more likely you are to need care. The question is not who will take care of you, because your family will most often, but rather what providing that care will do to your family and finances.
Long-Term Care is Usually Custodial Care
Long-term care is defined as needing assistance with your activities of daily living including: Toileting; bathing; dressing; eating; transferring from one point to another and continence. It also includes cognitive impairment so severe that the individual needs constant supervision.
If you need custodial care, chances are it will be delivered in the community, not in a nursing home. Many of you have heard compelling statistics from The New England Journal of Medicine stating that 43% of those over age 65 will need nursing home care. What the article said is that actual percentage may spend some time in a facility. The fact is few end their days in one.
Every study conducted finds that care is overwhelmingly provided at home. The key question, of course, is who is going to pay for it?
Who Covers the Cost?
Medicare, the primary health care program for retirees pays only for skilled or rehabilitative care, not custodial care in any venue. Medicaid, a federal and state program for financially needy individuals will pay for custodial care, but primarily in nursing homes. Funding for home care and assisted living is very limited and based on availability of funds.
Veterans believe that the VA will pay for home care, adult day care or assisted living. As with Medicaid, funding is limited and generally based on service-related disability. In fact the federal government has essentially said this to veterans by encouraging them to purchase long-term care insurance through the new Federal Long-Term Care Insurance program.
The result is that consumers are forced to pay privately for their care. Unfortunately, the best thought-out retirement plan rarely takes into consideration living a long life. Put another way, those assets and income have been allocated to pay for retirement, not for the consequences of living a long life. This results in the need to invade principal and divert income. As a result, a senior’s greatest fear, that of outliving their assets, literally may come true.
The Role of
Long-Term Care Insurance
The use of long-term care insurance thus becomes an important part of planning for disability caused by living a long life. The product has two roles: helping keep families together and allowing your retirement portfolio to execute for the purpose for which it was intended, namely retirement.
From a family perspective, you should think about who will be providing your care. Like it or not, children will play a key role. Long-term care insurance (LTCI) doesn’t replace the need for family involvement in providing care but rather builds on it. It pays professionals to assist the person with the toughest tasks such as toileting, bathing, feeding and continence. This, in turn, allows the family to provide better care for a longer at period of time at home. That leads to a critical question: have YOU planned for the consequences of living a long life?
From a financial point of view, LTCI allows your retirement plan to stay intact. That is particularly important given the recent steep decline in portfolio value. The product, in effect protects the balance of your account value. LTCI also protects income. Although you may qualify for Medicaid to pay for nursing home costs by transferring assets, your income (pension, social security, IRA and or 401k payout) cannot be protected.
When buying this insurance, look for a long-term care specialist. Consider their training, educational credentials and commitment to help solve your long-term care needs. The key is whether they talk first about a plan or a product. If they are interested in the plan, you are dealing with a professional. If they focus first on product and price, consider getting another opinion.
HANNA SAUNDERS, is a Master Long Term Care Specialist, and has earned the designation “Certified in Long-Term Care” or CLTC, after completing a rigorous multidisciplinary course focused on the profession of long-term care. She is certified by The New York State Partnership For Long Term Care, and is a member of the National Advisory Council of The Long Term Care Division of Genworth Financial. Hanna is certified to speak for The National Institute For Health and Life Planning, a Not For Profit Organization for which the focus is to develop awareness in the general public of long term care issues, expenses and solutions for problems which may be faced in the future. You can reach her at 718-279-0019 or 516-236-9801 or by e-mail at: hanrn@aol.com
