Who Needs Long Term Care Insurance

Who needs long term care insurance? According to a recent article in the New York Times baby-boomers.

Fran Hawthorne, writer and retirement planning specialist writes:

MOST of the nation’s 78 million baby boomers are watching their parents grow old. While investigating caretaking options for their parents, they should also be thinking about their own old age and planning how they will pay for nursing homes or home health aides for themselves, experts say. With life expectancy steadily rising, the odds are that they will eventually need some help with basic functions, like dressing or walking, maybe for decades.

But many boomers are ignoring this prospect.

Why are so many people disregarding the prospect of the financial consequences of long term health care costs? Could it be that too many people are still suffering from the notion that someone is going to take care of them? As most readers discover in “Insider Secrets” there is no safety net other than your own bank account. And as couples age there is a hugh risk of that bank account (or retirement fund) being tapped out. While you may never have a ltc need the odds of a spouse having one is quite large.

Boomer’s are watching their own parents age and seeing the costs of care but still not wanting to look into the crystal ball. Perhaps it’s just human nature to say “it won’t happen to me”. While that is well and good it might just happen to your spouse and through that long term sickness your bank balance could well be pinched into oblivion.

Who needs long term care insurance is like asking who needs health insurance.

While ltc insurance may or may not be for you what is for you is learning about how these policies work, what risks you face and how to minimize those risks is for everyone.