Someone turning age 65 today has almost a 70% chance of needing some type of long-term care services and supports in their remaining years. Women need care longer (3.7 years) than men (2.2 years) and one-third of today’s 65 year-olds may never need long-term care support, but 20 percent need it for longer than 5 years. (Government Source: https://longtermcare.acl.gov/the-basics/how-much-care-will-you-need.html)
The most important take away from these statistics is that you need to consider Long-Term Care when planning for your future. You need to have discussions with your family on how you will handle a Long-Term Care event, especially if they will be the ones providing some type of care.
Here are a couple of discussion topics we believe are important to discuss with family when planning for a potential Long-Term Care need in the future:
What Long-Term Care involves.
Long-Term Care services vary widely. Some services amount to little more than help around the house and driving. Other’s need around the clock care and need help with the most basic aspects of living.
For the purposes of Long-Term Care Insurance, a Long-Term Care is defined as needing help with 2 out of 6 of “activities of daily living”. Eating, bathing, getting dressed, toileting, transferring and continence. This means that many people that need Long-Term Care services need help in almost every aspect of their lives.
Since Long-Term Care can involve such comprehensive care, it is important that your family talk about and think through what helping someone with the activities of daily living would involve physically and emotionally as well as the cost of time and money for the one providing care. We will look at this a bit more in our next point:
Is it feasible for family to provide Long-Term Care.
Can your family afford to quit their job to take care of you? Do they have other responsibilities that would preclude them from caring for you full time? Are they physically able to help with activities such as transferring? Do they live close and if not, are they willing to move? Are they emotionally strong enough to provide care and see you at your weakest point?
Care is not always full time, so the question of feasibility depends on the situation. Nevertheless, it is important that you and your family consider their lives to see if they are both willing and able to provide care. Maybe they can provide some care, but full-time care would be to much. It is a discussion you need to have.
Do you want family to provide care for you? Can you afford to pay for care? Is LTC insurance the best option? Many people would prefer others to provide care if possible.
Self-pay, LTC Insurance and family care all need to be evaluated to see which works best for you. Talking with your family is a great first step in being prepared for a future Long-Term Care event.
Give us a call today and we can help you will your planning process. We offer all the major LTC carriers in Georgia and our main concern is that you have a plan for you and your family when it comes to Long-Term Care.
770-452-9335
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