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Over the past years long-term care insurance has become a topic that many people are getting interested in. As a former health professional that worked with the elderly I have seen how few Americans are dealing with the fact that as a whole we are living much longer which means more people are likely to need care in their elder years. The cost of that needed care is rising much faster than the cost of living. Long-term care insurance is one answer to this problem. Only 10% of older Americans have long-term care insurance. The reason being is that it is a gamble and an expensive one. This article should help you decide if long-term care insurance is right for you. Unfortunately there is really no simple answer to whether long-term care insurance is right for you. You have to consider the likelihood that you will need enough paid care to make it worthwhile for you and the cost over the years of specific policies. Keep in mind these three essential facts when making this decision. Long-term care insurance is added security, not an investment. The odds are small that you will actually need and collect benefits for long enough to justify the high premiums you will pay to have the coverage. But if you can afford a good policy, it can provide you and your family extra security against the very real possibility of high long-tern care costs. The benefits from long-term care insurance are for way down the road. A “fun fact” is that 50% of all the claims that are ever made on theses policies are not made until the insured person is well within their eighties. Another 40% of the claims are not made until a person is in their seventies. So if you are in your forties right now, you are paying premiums to protect yourself from a situation that is probably 30 to 40 years away. With most of these policies it means that you will have to pay and afford those premiums for all those years. It also means you need a policy that has good inflation policy so that when you finally claim the benefits, that will have kept up with the cost of the care you will need. The goal of long-term care insurance is to protect your assets and not making sure you get healthcare in your elder years. If you become low on funds and all your assets are gone, Medicaid will pay the full cost of nursing home care. Currently Medicaid pays half the nation’s long-term nursing home costs. Whether long-term care insurance is right for you is a tough question to answer. In the event you are unable to answer the questions your self there are professionals such as personal healthcare consultants available that can take you through your options.
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