Elder Law Attorneys Helping You Plan For The Future

Considering long-term care insurance

On Behalf of | Nov 18, 2015 | Care Planning

As part of your long-term plans for life, you should consider your later years. While many Houston residents like to consider retirement years as a golden age where beach lounging, travel and hobbies finally get the time they deserve, you’ll also need to consider some less positive implications of aging. What happens if you require care toward the end of life, for example?

When considering the possibility that you might require medical care or assisted living in later years, you’ll likely arrive quickly at a main consideration: How will the care be paid for? One way to ensure you get the best care — at a facility of your choosing — is to plan ahead to pay for it.

Long-term care can be expensive. According to a Genworth Cost of Care Study in 2014, the price of a nursing home room for a year is about $77,380 even if you share the room with another person. A year in an assisted living facility, which might afford more freedom and require more from you with regard to daily activities, still runs over $40,000 a year on average.

While some health insurance benefits might kick in to cover costs, your basic Medicare or Medicaid coverage won’t pay for everyone and definitely doesn’t cover some of the finer things you might want to enjoy in such a situation. Long-term care insurance might be a way to fund your end-of-life care if you want more than the required standard of care.

Understanding what you might need later in life and acting now to purchase appropriate insurance, create savings or begin estate and care planning helps you increase quality of life during retirement. While it’s not a topic anyone really enjoys spending time on, you’ll feel peace of mind if you work with someone to develop a plan to make your wishes known and pay for end-of-life care.

Source: Money, “Do You Really Need a Long-Term Care Plan?,” Dan Kadlec, accessed Nov. 18, 2015