If you mention long-term care, most people think nursing home, and they think high costs. Both can be true, but more often LTC is rendered at home and by unpaid caregivers.
Nevertheless the cost of long-term care in a facility or through a paid aid will be very expensive and it is middle income folks who will carry the largest financial burden.
There are different ways to deal with the problem, LTC insurance being one. Insurance is expensive and getting more so, if you can even buy it these days.
I refer you to two articles on the subject of LTC insurance by Adam Grossman on HumbleDollar blog. THEIR LOSS, YOUR GAIN and HOW TO CHOOSE
In the article referenced below you will find all the key statistics about long-term care that you will need to help decide your best course for financial protection against this expense which is not covered by Medicare or other health insurance. Should your plans for retirement designate funds to pay for this contingency?
From a personal financial standpoint, long-term care has been a deeply problematic area for consumers for many years. An extended long-term-care stay can be catastrophically expensive, adding an extreme wild card to retirement plans without long-term-care insurance. Unfortunately, the long-term-care insurance market has been troubled itself, resulting in increased premiums on many policies and a number of insurers dropping out of the business altogether. To help readers understand the key issues in the long-term-care space, I’ve assembled a now-annual compendium of statistics on long-term care. Each statistic includes a link through to the original source of the information; I’ve aimed to use the most current figures I could find from objective sources, wherever possible.
Source: 100 Must-Know Statistics About Long-Term Care: Pandemic Edition | Morningstar
Missed some major points:
LTC insurance is actually legacy insurance … if you end up needing significant LTSS, neither the insurance nor your savings may be enough. However, if your experience is typical, what you have bought is “legacy” insurance, so that you don’t have to go through spend down prior to passing.
Today’s median retiree does not incur significant (facility) LTSS (Long Term Services and Supports) expenses. That may change in the future should life expectancy continue to improve (it didn’t last year due to COVID – especially among old folks like me).
Remember that long term care expenses generally qualify as otherwise itemized deductible medical expenses under internal revenue code section 213 – where the proposed exclusion for medical expense of 10% of AGI was scaled back to 7.5% of AGI.
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There was no mention of the most valuable, tax preferred option to save for retiree medical and long term care costs, whether through insurance (LTC, Medicare Part B and D) or for out of pocket spend – with no loss of assets nor forfeiture should you die prematurely or not incur significant medical or LTSS expense – Health Savings Accounts.
LTC insurance might be right for you, or not. However, saving in a HSA is always the right option – for every American. If your employer doesn’t offer you health coverage that qualifies for HSAs, remind them that your HSA contributions avoid employer-paid employment taxes – so they can actually save money when they adopt a plan that allows you to leverage this, most tax favored benefit offered to American workers.
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