Long Term Care???

What you will get here is personal experiences, but unless you know ages, income, family situations, savings, health conditions, etc., those experiences may have nothing to do with who you are.

No one, whether here or someone selling financial products, ought to be telling you whether LTC is "worth it" until they know the answer to all the above topics and more.

My advice to anyone I advise is to read as much as you can find out about LTC and then ask a more specific question, but be very careful. That whole industry is undergoing massive changes, so books and articles written even 5 years ago aren't necessarily true for today.

As soon as the government agency who I was working for offered LTC insurance, I signed up for it. I'm retired now, and I still kept it. I wouldn't be without it. It puts my mind at ease. Check out the web sites of some of the popular financial advisors like Suse Orman, Dave Ramsey, and see what insurance companies they suggest.

I am presently a recipient of long term care benefits. It tooks months to get it processed, and a lot of work on my part, but I am qualified to receive it and I am receiving it. It is making a huge difference in my life, and I am so glad I stuck with paying the premiums for twenty years. It was expensive, but I made it a priority because I knew that was all I was going to have. Coincidentally with my claim, the premiums have doubled for those who still have the policy but are not sick yet. I don't know if I could have afforded to keep it based upon the new premiums. For once in my life, I got in just under the wire. Once one starts collecting, premiums are no longer required to be paid.

It is changing though, the policy I had is no longer available from my insurance company for new employees. I was obviously "grandfathered" in because I had the policy for so long. With people like me living longer, but quite debilitated, I think the insurance companies lose money on long term care policies now, so they are beginning to stop offering them.

If one has a policy, I would suggest keeping it. The benefits are very significant once one has qualified.

DH and I are in our mid 60s and we opted not to get LTC insurance. To me it seems that there are too many loopholes, i.e., premiums can escalate dramatically, companies go out of business. etc. Since we have no children, at some point we plan to enter a Life Care facility that has independent living, assisted care and nursing home all in one building. The entrance fees and monthly costs can be substantial but we feel it is a better value for us and will provide security and peace of mind.

Susie ORMAN said it was a great thing IF you are sure you can continue to afford to pay the premiums well into retirement. To start it and then drop it because it got too expensive, would be a total waste.

On 2/18/2014 Barbiedr said:

Susie ORMAN said it was a great thing IF you are sure you can continue to afford to pay the premiums well into retirement. To start it and then drop it because it got too expensive, would be a total waste.