Pay for Care or for Insurance?

To buy or not to buy a long term care insurance (LTCI) policy still remains a debatable topic. Unfortunately, a bigger population would rather not purchase because they find the cost of long term care insurance discouraging.

Individuals who purchase a policy at the age of 50 or 55 can expect to pay up to $1700 on annual premiums while those who buy the product at the age of 65 are going to pay more than $2,500. Now those who keep postponing their plan to buy a policy until they’ve reached the age of 75 will be paying twice as much as the annual premiums of 65-year-olds.

Then again, the price tag of your policy should not be based on a single pattern because even if age is a major factor to be considered, your health cannot be ignored. Some policyholders get up to 20% preferred health discounts on their annual premiums because they’ve managed to keep their health in tiptop condition in spite of being 50 or 60 years old.

Health discounts apart, spousal discounts are also made available to married couples, siblings and practically everybody living in the same house. Discount rates vary from company to company so it is important to be disce
ing for you to be able to get the best deal.
Besides, this industry is teeming with frauds so only trust insurance firms which have been issued ratings by credible insurance ratings companies namely A.M Best Company, Standard & Poor’s, Wiess Research, Duff & Phelps, and Moody’s Investor’s Service.

Cost of Long Term Care Insurance

Although LTCI policies are expensive, buyers are allowed to adjust their coverage until its premium meets their budget. This is something that is not possible with the cost of long term care (LTC).

For instance, if you’re going to enter a nursing home 20 years from now the average cost of a year’s stay in this type of LTC facility is projected to be $310,980 so this is the price that you have to pay. Simply put, you have to pay what’s asked of you.

Meanwhile, an LTCI policy is all about negotiation. In fact, it was elder care specialist, book author and 3 in 4 Need More advocate Dr. Marion Somers who said that the price you pay for a policy is what you negotiate for.

Today’s cost of care is threatening people’s finances so what more when it doubles in 2025 and quadruples in 2030? As the cost of care soars, the elderly population continues to grow, too. In 2030, the U. S. Census Bureau’ data shows that 70 millio
Americans will need care.

If everyone will rely on Medicaid, Medicare and other federal funded health insurance programs can you imagine how the country’s economy will turn out?

Health care is, indeed, an issue that the government should address but let’s not forget to act responsibly, too. Contact a licensed LTCI agent in your area or your state’s department of insurance to check the cost of long term care insurance. It won’t cost you anything to inquire, on the contrary, it will free you financially.