The Next White House Council On Aging Is July 13, 2015
Organizers want the public to “get involved” by watching the event live, sharing personal stories, interviewing an older adult, or completing the sentence: “Getting older is getting better because…..”. Will any of that promote changes or do much good?
Talking about a problem sometimes produces good ideas on how to deal with it. Some ideas being tossed about include government subsidies for LTC insurance purchase, allowing penalty free withdrawals from retirement accounts for the insurance, and others.
If government subsidies were offered to low income people for the purchase of LTC insurance, would they do it? How many Americans still refuse to buy health insurance despite the government subsidies? Allowing penalty free withdrawals from retirement accounts to purchase LTC insurance sounds good, but might this only help those with perhaps enough assets to cover a good portion of the care out of pocket?
I don’t have the answers, but I do know that if LTC insurance is chosen appropriately, it is far more affordable than many people realize. I’ll even through out a few numbers: a 55 year old couple can each purchase a decent policy that would cover them for 10 years of care each, with built in 5% compound inflation starting at $3000/month benefit for $2036/year each. With those automatic, built in increases they would together have $4,000,000 for LTC by age 85, when it may be needed. A similar policy with just 4 years of care is less than $1600/year each.
The trick is to choose appropriate coverage, while you are still healthy enough to get it, and buy it from a company with no track record of price increases and has reasonable prices. That is where LTC insurance specialists come in.
Your financial planner is (hopefully) doing a great job managing and growing your savings. That is his specialty. He/she probably has access to only one or two LTC insurance companies which may or may not be the best choice for you. LTC insurance specialists offer coverage from many companies and can choose which is the best fit for your health and age.
I’ll bet your city has many fine doctors. However, many of them specialize in certain areas of practice. Your wouldn’t go to a podiatrist for a sore shoulder, and you wouldn’t see an orthopedist for an upset stomach. So why would you buy this very important and specialized type of insurance from an investment firm who’s strong suit is stocks and bonds?
Lets see what the White House Conference has to say. information about it is available here: http://www.whitehouseconferenceonaging.gov/
For information on how to locate and choose the best coverage for LTC, visit here: www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com
