To Buy or Not to Buy Long Term Care Insurance

Who should buy long term care insurance (LTCI)? This question seems to be addressed to professionals marketing LTCI policies but the irony of it is that it actually goes out to the greater percentage of uninsured individuals who continue to justify why they don’t need an LTCI policy.

LTCI experts will say this type of insurance product is designed for people who may potentially develop serious health conditions such as cancer, heart diseases, Alzheimer’s, dementia, and osteoporosis among others, and eventually lose the ability to live independently and perform the activities of daily living (ADL) such as eating, bathing, dressing, and toileting among others without assistance.

To know if you are a possible candidate for any of the above-mentioned illnesses, look up your family’s health history and undergo a general checkup with your doctor.

Now aside from those individuals who have a genetic predisposition towards life-threatening maladies, insurance companies said LTCI policies are also intended for disabled young individuals, or those who have sustained serious injuries such as a broken spine, broken hip, or a fractured knee and thus necessitate care in an LTC facility that specializes in rehabilitative care.

Individuals with a longer life expectancy are also advised to secure an LTCI policy because their chances of needing care in the future are big. Truth is, the longer you live the higher is your risk of requiring LTC because you become more susceptible to various geriatric diseases.

If you can’t convince yourself that you could need LTC someday, you can opt for another kind of LTC plan. What matters is that you don’t reach the age of retirement without a concrete plan for your future health care needs.

Who Should Buy Long Term Care Insurance?

After careful analysis of the list of individuals who could possibly need LTCI, it’s just right to conclude that everybody will need it at some point in his life.

Given you are not genetically predisposed to cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and other serious health disorders but if your current lifestyle is not good it could be a major threat to your health. Smoking, drinking, poor diet, and sleep deficiency could make one a candidate for all kinds of heart diseases.

If you can boast a healthy lifestyle then good for you but can you control accidents that would befall you? When driving your car, engaging in sports, or simply cleaning your house, the only thing that you can do is to keep yourself away from danger but sometimes a collision, a fall or a slip cannot be avoided.

You can say that you’ll be extra careful in order to avoid possible accidents that may lead to hospital confinement and eventually to nursing home care. In case you succeed in this goal and manage to live into your 80s or 90s, don’t think that you’ve escaped LTC.

Once you arrive in the line of 80s observe how you move physically and how you think. If you cannot perform the simplest activities at home without calling out to a family member for assistance, you are in effect, receiving LTC.

Perhaps, it’s every single American who should buy long term care insurance because by the looks of it, no one shall be spared from the high cost of care. Contact a licensed LTCI agent in your area to inquire about your options.