Just read a poorly titled article from Bloomberg.com. It is based on a study out of Boston College that questions the need for purchasing Long Term Care insurance. The study focused on nursing home stays in order to come to their conclusions. The study focused on singles that now make up most of our senior population. Probably because of the spike in the senior’s divorce rate, which according to this article from USA Today, has been caused by the cost of long term medical care.
Now let’s forget for a minute that most of the people who need long term care want to remain in their homes. Just looking at nursing home care, the fact that you may not use it is not a good reason to not buy insurance. The insurance is there to protect you should you need it. It is much better to have the coverage available and not need it, than to need it and not have it. As we all know the costs can be astronomical if you need long term residence in a nursing home.
So let’s say that everything in the article is working out as planned. You have a short stay in a nursing home. What happens next you cannot go home and just resume normal life? You need to have people come in and help you and that costs money. The other way that you leave the nursing home is death. You only have a short stay because it ends in death. Well planning to die is all well and good, but what if you are unlucky enough to live? How do you deal with the debt that you have built up now that you have pulled through? Of course I am not serious about death being “lucky,” but from a strictly financial perspective, that is how many researchers, journalists, and pundits are framing the issue of Long Term Care.
The fact is anything can look like a bad idea if you don’t look at the big picture. You want to live, you want to keep your money, and maintain your lifestyle. Lnog Term Care insurance is the right choice for everyone who plans to live through our modern medical era. People are living longer and new medical treatments are popping up every day. You have spent a lot of time planning for your retirement and you need to protect that plan and make sure that you are able to live the life that you want to live in your golden years.
