Covering the Cost of a Nursing Home!

If you are over the age of 65, congratulations! You made it to Medicare coverage! And Professional Benefit Solutions can help you with all your questions about signing up for your coverage, but while we are meeting, we really need to discuss Long Term Care coverage. If you are 65, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, you have a 70% probability of needing some sort of long term care in your remaining years.

The good news is that only about 20% of Seniors will need the care for more than 5 years, but statistics show that women will need 3-7 years and men will require help for 2.2 years. Nursing Homes – even with a shared room- is expensive. On average in Tennessee nursing home care will cost an average of $200 per day – every day – 7 days a week – 52 weeks per year. That adds up quickly at a rate of $66,065 – $73,365 per year just for housing and long-term care.

Most people often need some home health care services before entering a nursing or skilled care facility which adds to the cost of being able to stay home.
The once “throw away” idea of Long Term Care Insurance has now become one of the most sought after benefits an employer can offer. And we know that the younger a person is when they purchase a policy, the more cost beneficial and inflation protected plan can actually be.

There are two types of policies on the market. One is a traditional Long -Term Care Insurance policy that provides a certain amount of coverage per day for generally 2-3 years with a set monthly (often inflation protected) annual fee and the other is a Life Insurance product that is similar to a Whole Life Insurance plan. People can enroll in the plan and pay a premium for a set number of years as an invested account with a guaranteed amount for Long-Term Care but will operate as a Life Insurance payment should the enrollee die without using any of the benefit.

Families caring for older adults in the home or who have had to move a Senior to skilled or nursing services are very aware of the staggering costs of that level of care. The popularity of these plans and the fact that people are keeping the plans rather than dropping them as they age or change jobs makes it clear that there is real value to adding a Long-Term Care option to the benefit plan.
And it provides the additional benefit to your employees of being a tax deductible purchase.