• "Only the Elderly Need Long Term Care"
• "The Average Consumer Can Save Enough To Cover Long Term Care Expenses"
• "Medicare, Medicaid and Other Benefits Will Cover Long Term Care Services"
• "Long Term Care Insurance Is Too Expensive"

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"Only the Elderly Need Long Term Care"

Forty percent of Americans receiving long term care are between the ages of 18 and 64.¹

Injuries and illnesses that can be associated with long term care for younger people include:

• Car accidents
• Head trauma
• Stroke
• Neurological conditions such as ALS and MS

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"The Average Consumer Can Save Enough To Cover Long Term Care Expenses"

Based on today's costs, a $250,000 nest egg would last less than five years.²

• Bringing an aide into your home just three times a week (two or three hours per visit) to help with dressing, bating, preparing meals and similar household chores — can easily cost $1,00 each month or $12,000 per year.³
• The average nursing home stay can cost more than $50,000 a year. In some regions, it can easily cost twice that amount.⁴

Personal savings are at an all time low. Nearly one quarter of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and they have no money left once they have paid their essential living expenses.⁵ In 2005, personal savings fell to -0.5 percent. In other words, Americans spent more than they earned, something that has not happened since the Great Depression.⁶

Long-term care costs are expected to double by the year 2025 and nearly quadruple by 2050.⁷

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"Medicare, Medicaid and Other Benefits Will Cover Long Term Care Services"

Many people believe that the government will pay for the cost of their long term care. But this isn't always true.

Medicare currently pays just 12 percent of all nursing home costs⁸, and covers primarily skilled and acute nursing home care. Nationally, Medicaid covers less than half of all nursing home costs in the United States.⁹ To qualify for Medicaid assistance, however, many individuals must deplete their life savings before they can qualify for Medicaid to pay for the services they need.¹⁰

Disability and medical insurance do not cover long term care expenses. Medical insurance generally covers diagnostic and treatment costs. Neither is designed to pay for ongoing care.

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"Long Term Care Insurance Is Too Expensive"

The cost for long term care insurance varies depending on a variety of factors including the benefit amount, when benefits begin, length of benefit and if any optional coverage is selected.

The younger you are when you purchase long term care insurance, the lower the premium will be. By way of illustration, a plan sold in the workplace to a 35 year-old purchasing the $3,000/three-year professional homecare benefit would be approximately $150 to $185 per year.

Once benefits begin, total premium paid typically can be recovered in just a few months.

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1. AHIP, A Guide to Long-Term Care Insurance, 2004.
2. Awareness of Long Term Care insurance Value Growing: ACLI Report, National Underwriter, May 2003.
3. AHIP, A Guide to Long Term Care Insurance, 2004.
4. http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/hh/2005/february/testimony.htm, viewed Sept. 6, 2005.
5. National Safety Council, Injury Facts, 2004.
6. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, February 2006.
7. "Medicaid in Crisis: Could Long Term Care Partnerships Be Part of the Solution?" Testimony by Senator Larry Craig, at United States Senate Special Committee on Aging, June 22, 2004. On the web at: http://aging.senate.gov/hearing_detail.cfm?id=271312& AHIP, A Guide to Long Term Care Insurance, 2004.
8. AHIP, A Guide to Long Term Care Insurance, 2004.
9. AHIP, A Guide to Long Term Care Insurance, 2004.
10. American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Public Policy Institute, "Medicaid and Long-Term Services and Supports for Older People Fact Sheet," February 2005.