In my excitement about my parents going to the Assisted Living Facility, I forgot to mention something very important. They are not wealthy, and do not have the money to pay for this place, which costs $6200 a month, BUT, their Long Term Care Policy is paying for ALL OF IT. It only pays for 6 years, but considering my father will be 90 in April, 6 years seems like a pretty good bet. My stepmother is 80, and if they are both still here in 6 years, we'll worry about it then.
SO CHECK THOSE POLICIES IF YOU HAVE THEM. For those of you who are struggling to care for your spouse at home, and they are not ready for a nursing home, a good option may be for both of you to go into Assisted Living, and if you have a policy that will pay for it - win-win situation.
Hello Joan, I'm glad you clarified the situation with regard to cost. I wonder how many people had the foresight and ability to pay for such an insurance policy. My father was in such a facility in Germany, paid for in large part by the government and he used to refer to it as "the hotel". It was the kind of place I wouldn't mind in the least if we had to give up our home. Unfortunately we don't have such a policy and these facilities are very expensive in Ontario too. Anyhow, I'm thrilled for your parents and I'm sure it was the best Christmas present you could have had.
I am so happy for you AND your parents. This gives you a lot of peace in your heart I'm sure. When we had suspicions of some cognitive impairment with my husband, we applied for long term care insurance. This was about three years ago. My husband was denied (they said based on his medical history - he wasn't even taking aircept at the time). I was approved (I'm younger and was working full time). They (STRS) were the ones to make the determination. So....I have Long Term Care Insurance but my husband does not. I wish we had been wise enough to apply for it years ago. It is nice to know that my children will have that protection for me if/when the time comes. I have told my adult children that they should consider taking out a policy. It seems like we wait will we are old and/or sick to think about it. I just happened to luck out and be approved. My husband is 7 years older than I.
Unfortunately, Sid and I do NOT have such a policy. I guess Sid would be denied now for sure. I will look into it for myself, but I know they are very expensive. Thank goodness my parents had the foresight to buy one years ago.
While at UCLA w/my husband, a counselor suggested that I get LTCI for myself, my husband would not qualify. I did get it, thinking my children would not be able to take care of both of us is anything happened. People says 'what for, you're OK' but I have a 90 y.o. sister who was OK 6 mos ago, playing cards, driving, etc and now, in a very short time she has to have 24 hr care & no, she did not have such a policy. She'll be OK for a while, but when her savings run out, I guess she'll apply for Medicaid. One never knows.
About 7 years ago at 59 I got LTCI for myself. Gene is 16 years older than I am. I figured with his bad heart and I was young and strong, I could take care of him. I didn't think about AD. I did not want to be a burden on anyone, even if they would take me in. It was about 2 years before I noticed memory problems. Maybe he would have been rejected if we had wanted to cover him too.
Being cost conscious I only covered about half the cost of long term care. I felt my income would cover the rest. I did 4 years, simple cost of living increase. If I need longer and my money runs out...here I come Medicaid.
The thing I'm wondering about re: long term care policies is--do they limit your choices? This seems to be something I've heard of happening. For example, you've paid for one for years, the time has come to use it, you find a place that suits you (place x), and the insurance company says that only place y meets their rules. Maybe place x costs more, but rather than the insurance company therefore only paying for part of the cost of place x, it's y or nothing. Maybe I'm making this up. But it's the fear I have of insurance companies. Frankly though, I'm sure that it's too late for us anyway, like Joan.
My DH and I both got the LTC Policy through State Farm. We got the Lifetime Benefit and a high per day rate for the NH. After meeting the deductible, they paid the rest of the Home Care for my husband. Now he is in the NH, they are paying for everything. Once my deductible was satisfied, and I started using the policy, then we no longer had to pay premiums on DH. It wasn't easy making those payments for the last 8 years, but, just 6 months in a NH will cover what we had to pay out of pocket for this policy. Like everyone else we were not sure we even wanted this type of policy as we were both very healthy and at the time had no idea what we were going to have to face. We talked about it for about a month before making this decision, and now, I am so glad we did.
The Insurance Companies are now giving a cognitive type test by R.N.'s before you can qualify for the LTC Policy. They really look into your medical history. My neighbor tried to get one last month and was told just this week that she was denied as she was taking a medicine for depression and has had several back surgeries.
My insurance company covers almost all of the NH's in our area, so, we got to choose which one we wanted. The one I chose is very nice and has an excellent staff. They are picky about putting some NH's on their list that have had problems over and over again, but, this was OK with me, as I would not want my DH in one of those anyway. They have some very nice NH on their list. The way our policy works is that we have approx $225-$250 per day for a NH or home care. Right now the care facility cost aprox. $121 per day, so, we should be fine for a while. Everything is covered on the policy, Assisted Living, Therapy, Bed Hold in case he is hospitalized, which he was for 5 days in Sept., NH with 24/7 Nursing. We could have both gone to Assisted Living and they would covered all of my DH's cost, but, I would have to pay half of the cost. We decided to just stay home( with the help of outside Care Givers ) and then when the time came where I could no longer take care of him, I would find a very nice NH for him, which I was blessed to find.
We lived in the West for approx. 16 years and just re-located back to South Texas two years ago. My husband's AD was one of the reasons as we knew we could get a lot more care and the cost would not be as expensive as it would be in Nevada. Plus, this is a lot slower paced area and the people here are so friendly and helpful. Even though this AD Journey has been tough, the people here have made life so much easier for me and a lot less stressful considering all the decisions that had to be made in a short time.
There are some shady insurance companies that offer LTC Policies and when the time comes, you have nothing. This was on the National News about 2 months ago. Before we signed for our policies, we read them carefully and knew beforehand what they covered. Plus, State Farm is a very large and reputable company, so, I felt comfortable taking this policy through them. AARP also offers LTC Policies. Kay Kay
My parents bought their policies from GE about 10 years ago. My father had a stroke four years ago and now has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. I did a lot of reading about long term care and one statistic on guidetolongtermcare.com said half of Americans will need long term care.
That prompted my wife and I to look into getting a policy. We got an email quote from the website and did the applications through the mail with them. The policy is with Genworth which I later found out is the original GE long term care insurance company with just a name change. It took a couple of weeks for underwriting but once we had it we felt much better. I talked on the phone a couple of times to get my questions answered. It was easy applying and we were more comfortable that way than having a salesman meet (pressure) us. I later learned that our Genworth policies through guidetolongtermcare are also approved by AARP, which we are members.
My father has since moved out of the home he's lived in for 41 years and into an Alzheimer's center. This has been hard on all of us, especially mom. We are considering having her come live with us or my sister. I think without the insurance my mom would have been in financial trouble, now she can maintain her lifestyle although without the love of her life.
I read the same article the previous poster mentioned, it was in the New York Times. You might find it searching on the NYT website. I encourage you to do research now, you are never too young to have a change of health that might leave you needing care and have life changing consequences for yourself and those you care about.
Both my husband and I bought LTC Ins in 1991, after he had had back surgery. There are always options to choose for your policy. Ours pays a dollar amount per day, and this goes up $5 each year. I think we are at $180 now. It also pays up to 1/2 this amount for Home health care. The cost of the ins is always cheaper when you buy it younger. My husband has AD and we are using the Home Health Care payment now. I am disappointed that they will only pay for Home Health Care for two years. We sure do learn a lot, becoming caregivers 24/7. Be sure to take care of yourself. Nansea