Like Disability Insurance, this is an often neglected component of protecting our families and loved ones. As in Life Insurance, we purchase these policies on ourselves, but the beneficiaries of an LTC policy are family and loved ones. No health plan or Medicare coverage provides any long term solution to becoming infirm.
Yet the fact remains that we, as a society, are living longer and the need for long term care is needed more than it has ever been in this country. Almost everyone has either personally experienced, or knows of a family, who has had to deal with a beloved patriarch who has been forced to lose every shred of dignity by selling off most everything they owned throughout their life and being forced into a Medicaid nursing home. If a family is lucky, a daughter is able to take time out from a job and her own family in order to care for Mom or Dad. Still there is incredible financial cost associated with long term care (average of $150 per day currently in Houston) and a family has to be realistic about confronting issues of basic human dignity.
Long Term Care policy benefits generally apply when an individual cannot meet two or more of the seven Activities of Daily Living (such as toileting, feeding oneself, and transference from toilet to bed). Such a policy accomplishes several things such as allowing an individual to remain semi-independent as long as possible by sending necessary care to the home. These plans can also allow us to choose high-quality, private settings for loved ones because such residential nursing care generally costs over $100 per day. Most people cannot afford an ongoing $3,000-or-more monthly bill in order to house and care for a loved one. LTC policies allow us to provide financially for our loved ones and to have the care they deserve.
Longhorn can advise you on important features available with such policies and also work with you on the tax advantages for owning Long Term Care coverage from a reputable carrier. |
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