This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org. Two things can be very expensive when it comes to long-term care: the cost of the care and the cost of a long-term-care insurance policy.
There’s not much you can do about the cost of long-term care itself — from about $5,100 a month for a home health aide to roughly $8,000 a month, on average, for a semiprivate room in a nursing home, according to the Genworth Cost of Care Survey. That can mean an annual cost of up to almost $100,000. But there are ways to save on buying a long-term-care insurance policy or reducing the annual premiums for a policy you already own.What long-term-care insurance pays for A long-term-care insurance policy can come in handy in the future should you wind up needing assistance with daily living activities like bathing, feeding, dressing or toileting. It won’t pay for things like trips to the doctor or grocery store, though. A person turning 65 has nearly a 70% chance of needing long-term care one day, based on a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimate. One in five people requiring long-term care will have that assistance for more than five years, the government says. Medicare generally doesn’t cover long-term care. Medicaid does, but only for the poorest Americans. So, unless you’ll qualify for Medicaid or have enough in savings to self-insure, a long-term-care policy could be worth considering. “Long-term-care insurance is not for everybody, but long-term-care planning is for ever …
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