Long term care insurance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

800-2.5m range

Let's say this is the range when LTC insurance would be helpful. To me it seems like such a narrow range -being able to estimate -that this will be a future amount -this is where you'll end up, adjusted for inflation -with all the other decisions in life you'll make along the way .... I'm guessing the process and cost over time won't be worth the aggravation.

The advice I've heard is that if you're roughly in that range retiring right now, it may make sense to look at more closely. If you have a lot more, you can likely self-insure unless you have a family history of longevity+ dementia, if you have much less, you're likely to deplete your assets/move your assets if you need LTC and be on medicaid anyway. But in between you're probably too rich to want a Medicaid institution and it would suck more for you to deplete your assets, but it would also suck to have to set aside the amount of assets needed to self-insure.

It's especially important for spouses to discuss and consider this together. The awful situation is when the caregiving burden becomes too much for one spouse and the other has to go into LTC. The couple then depletes their assets and the caregiving spouse ends up with little to live on and no spouse to provide the care and no money for LTC. So their old age is caring for a declining spouse, living meagerly while their spouse is in LTC/dies, and then ending up in a sub-par Medicaid LTC facility as soon as they aren't able to live independently. So it rubs me really wrong when the older spouse--usually male--with a shorter life expectancy--again usually male--makes a solo decision to not plan for this reasonably without really working through the details of the various situations with their spouse. So, if you have a spouse, make sure they also really think that it 'won't be worth the aggravation' too. LTC insurance may or may not be the answer, but "winging it" isn't either.

This. Many people don't even realize this is a thing.

The difference between a financial planner and a financial salesperson.

[Anonymous]

What do you all mean by "self insure"? Just save the money for your care? No insurance at all?

And what is the difference between LTC insurance and life insurance that pays out for % of disability? Is the latter a better idea? Are those policies more solvent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you all mean by "self insure"? Just save the money for your care? No insurance at all?

And what is the difference between LTC insurance and life insurance that pays out for % of disability? Is the latter a better idea? Are those policies more solvent?

self-insure means you plan to pay for it yourself. Usually that means you believe you have enough money saved for retirement that you could afford to pay for your long term care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you all mean by "self insure"? Just save the money for your care? No insurance at all?

And what is the difference between LTC insurance and life insurance that pays out for % of disability? Is the latter a better idea? Are those policies more solvent?

The LTC care insurance market is broken and its very likely you will end up spending money on premiums only to see the insurance company become insolvent (unable to pay) or raising premiums dramatically and effectively force you to cancel the policy. It is a better idea to just save the money you would have spent on LTC insurance and invest it in an index fund.

[Anonymous]

BRAVO
Signed, nurse in an oncology unit at a top DC hospital.


There is no legal/legitimate "medical directive" that would allow a caregiver/spouse/relative or even the state to simply turn their back on a dementia patient and let them die of neglect. Not going to happen.

I think there is a percentage of people who like to talk REAL BIG about how they are going to be IN CONTROL and not live in any kind of diminished capacity. They like to talk big, but when the time comes and they actually have dementia, they are going to need the same care that everyone else needs... toilet care, dressing, help with managing life, and security so they don't wander away. The bottom line is that there is no easy way out of living through dementia unless you have a pact with your spouse to do a murder-suicide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I plan to self insure. I also have no interest in wasting away in diapers in a $15,009 a month memory care unit. Just OD me.

Yeah um, if this is what you really want, then you need to write a super tight "do not rescucitate" will now and one that says that if you can't feed, bathe and cloth yourself, then you do not want to be offered any food or otherwise. The point, by the time you're losing it with dementia or through a fall or something else, you won't be able to assert these types of rights yourself and it's illegal for your friends and relatives to do this for you.

Is it even permissible to have a DNR for when you are a dementia patient but not otherwise terminally ill? It's one thing to stop feeding someone in the hospice who isn't able to feed themselves let alone get out of bed. But many dementia patients are physically mobile and can live for many years like that. If you don't feed them, they're going to come looking for food unless you have them handcuffed to the radiator or something. Having a ward full of dementia patients who are slowly starving to death sounds like a horror movie. What kind of Nazis would you need to run such a place?

Do you know what DNR stands for? Start by googling that. You can have one now. It doesn’t mean you can’t eat or be fed.

Secondly, how do you think most dementia patients die in the end? They don’t die of dementia per se. They eventually stop eating. And slowly starve. Force-feeding them to keep them alive sounds like a horror movie. What kind of Nazis would you need to run such a place?