What You Need to Know About Long-Term Care Insurance

Averting Your Care Crisis

It’s a conversation nobody wants to have, but the likelihood that long-term care will be in our future is undeniable and needs to be discussed. Make time for that family dialog and consider long- term care insurance as a way to plan ahead and guide mom and dad through old age while keeping your finances intact. You may even sign up yourself.

With Americans getting older, and the average life expectancy continuing to rise, the age-85 and over group is the fastest growing segment of the population. And because more than half of all Americans expected to spend some part of their later years in long-term care situations, the simple math is not deniable: No matter how inconvenient it is to accept, no one is untouched by the effects of aging which often mean diminished physical or mental ability.

The number of Americans who will require long term-care is on the rise and so is the cost of that care. In 1994, more than 7 million Americans needed long-term care services at a cost of about $44,000 per year. By the year 2000, that number increased to 9 million with a price tag close to $56,000. Today’s cost average -- a staggering $75,000 per year -- is projected to reach a much more breathtaking number -- $300,000 annually -- in the next 20 years for the more than 23 million Americans who will need it. Few, if any, Americans are financially equipped to handle that bill.

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