Long Term Care and Long Term Care Insurance? Your Chances and Your

Clearly, you don't want to dwell on an image of you or your
spouse in a wheel chair or nursing home, but if you don't
plan ahead now for such eventualities, you could end up
with a crippling financial burden that can strip a family
of it's entire nest egg.

Funding for eventual long term care must be planned for far
in advance, and long term care insurance seems to be the
tool of choice. The alternatives really suck by
comparison, so it's time to get going to put your plan in
place while you still can.

Fact is, there is nearly a 50% chance that during
retirement, due to medical conditions or extended
longevity, a person will eventually end up requiring
24-hour skilled nursing care in a long term care facility.

Another astounding fact is that more than 40% of nursing
home residents are under age 65. In truth, at age 57, due
to advanced Multiple Sclerosis, I myself would be in a care
home if my wife would let me out of her sight.

And now let's look at the average length of facility care
plus the projected costs for that care…

Long Term Care - It's Leading Causes & Average Lengths of
Nursing Home Stays ( from Financial Planning News ):

Alzheimer's: 96 months
Diabetes this includes Diebetes Mellitus: 48 months
Pulmonary: 36 months
Cancer: 36 months
Stroke: 21 months
Cardiac:16 months

What happens if you don't have long term care insurance,
but you do need this long term care?

Well, at room rates of $300.00 per day, if care costs
inflate at least 5% annually, then 10 years from now, the
average, Alzheimer's, long term care stay in a private room
could cost a family over $1,400,000.00+

Do you want your family to pay THAT out of savings? I
don't think so, and long term care insurance is clearly the
only sensible answer, but is long term care insurance too
expensive?

Long term care insurance can cost from under $100/mo. to
over $1000/month, so sure, at first insurance can seem
expensive, yet consider this:

At 5% annual compounded inflation, in 10 years, actual
real-life care costs could mount to well over anything you
might ever put into long term care insurance. Just do the
math.

The annual long term care insurance premium investment is
often less than the actual cost of just ONE MONTH in a care
situation.

One important factor to take into account is whether particular
illnesses are covered in the costs,
e.g. Alzheimer's,diebetes mellitus:heart problems,Cancer

NOTE: Recent industry articles indicate that long term care
insurance is such a valuable planning tool that financial
advisors may face legal action if they neglect to at least
recommend consideration of coverage. (Trusts & Estates
Magazine)

Long term care insurance may make good financial sense for
you and yours, and the early bird gets the worm, because
the lowest long term care insurance prices are locked in at
the younger ages and are designed to remain level
thereafter.

In any case, each policy is designed to custom fit your
circumstances, so you have to work with a trained long term
care insurance specialist in order to create the optimal
coverage plan. You'll want a multi-company broker who can
compare companies and policies to find the best long term
care insurance plan for your unique situation.
Copyright (c) 2006 Clay Cotton

This article has been amended and changed by the editor

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Long term care insurance activist, Clay Cotton, writes for
http://www.PrepSmart.com - The Online Baby Boomers Decision
Assistance Center, where you get Free Long Term Care
Insurance advice, comparative rate quotes and personal
guidance, all at home while in your favorite pajamas and
bunny slippers. So cool!