Long Term Care

Long-Term Care insurance is an important component of protecting your retirement plan and your hard earned assets for your and your loved ones.

The likelihood of needing long-term care is high.

For a couple turning 65, there is a 75% chance that one of them will be in long-term care. The average stay in nursing homes is 2.9 years and the average need for long-term care given at home is 4.1 years. Indeed, 1/3rd of nursing home long-term care patients will be in a facility for more than 3 years.

What does that mean at the dollar level? Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the average price of “semi-private” care (3 to a room) in a nursing home is $205 per day. That is over $6,300 per month and is $75,000 per year. Room and board in an Assisted Living Facility is nearly $3,000 to $4,000 per month on average. A licensed Home Health Care Agency will charge $21-25 per hour of Home Care. Obvisously, the average long-term care requirement can be a several hundred thousand dollar experience.*

It has been estimated (the national average) that in 10 years, the cost of providing nursing home services to the average Alzheimer’s victim in a private room will be $910,000.*

So what is Long-Term Care? It is a custodial level of care, that people need when they can no longer perform the tasks of living independently. That is unable to perform the Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), or having a cognitive impairment that requires observation for your safety or the safety of others. Maybe the best way to think of long-term care is that which is needed as we suffer the issues of old age and frailty.*

* Taking Care of Tomorrow. A Consumer's Guide to Long Term Care: LTC 00876(0404)