My Mom died in 2020 of Alzheimer’s disease at age 94.
My Dad is 92 and has Dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
The cost of caring for my Mom for over 3 years was about $250,000. The last 9 months of her life at a memory facility at $6,000 per month.
The cost of caring for my Dad for the last 18 months has been between $6,200 to $6,500 a month. It will soon be $8,000 per month as I must move him into a memory facility.
No long-term care insurance for either one. Income for them is above qualifying for Medicaid. How to pay? His hard-earned money. Dad was a blue-collar worker that worked his way to mid-level management and was able (due to Mom) to save some money. He retired after 38 years of working and took his Social Security early.
I tell you all this so that you can plan on living. You see it costs to live. And the longer you live the more it is going to cost you.
IF they had bought LTC insurance in their 60’s they could have saved tens of thousands of that hard-earned money. My current guess is that it would be over $300,000. And they may have spent 20-25 thousand dollars for that coverage.
There is a 70% chance when you are over the age of 65 that you will need some type of coverage. Now you 40 to 60 years old listen up – 40% of this group is using it now! So don’t think this is ‘old folks’ insurance.
Let’s back up just a bit and learn just what is LTC/EC insurance.
LTC/EC coverage is when you are unable to perform unassisted 2 of 6 Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Here is the way I remember these. In the morning when you wake up you need to go from your bed to somewhere (generally speaking, to the bathroom). That is called transferring – going from one location to another. And speaking of the bathroom that is the second activity, you must be able to do all the things associated with toileting. After that you probably head for the shower/bath. This is the third activity. You must be able to perform the necessities of personal hygiene (bathing). Then after getting cleaned up you put on your clothes. Activity number 4, you must be able to get your clothes on and off. Now that we are all clean and dressed, I’m hungry! This is the fifth activity; you must be able to feed yourself. And the last activity is remaining continence throughout the day.
So, the six ADLs are: Transferring, Toileting, Bathing, Dressing, Eating, and Continence.
Paying for such care is available in one of Four ways.
- Using your hard-earned cash.
- Depending on the Government and spend down to be eligible for Medicaid (not Medicare) Note that Medicare does NOT pay for long term care.
- Having LTC/EC insurance. And the number one objection to having LTC/EC insurance? It is a use it or lose it propositions. Until now!
- Asset based. This is done through either an annuity or a life insurance policy that has a LTC rider.
Experts will tell you the best time to buy this coverage is age 50 to 60. I think that should be 40 to 64 and here’s why. There is a policy that if you buy coverage during this age range (and like all insurance the younger you are the less expensive it is) and you never use it the company will return 3 times your paid in premium to your beneficiary. This is a game changer.
For more information on all the other details call me and let’s discuss.
H. Ben Davis, III CSA, SelectPointe, LLC – 615-584-4946, [email protected] www.selectpointebd.com
