Long Term Care Health Insurance May Be Worth a Look

There are a number of interpretations by various studies of how long we may be expected to live. A team of Harvard researchers conducted a 21-year study (1980-2001) and considered factors like disease, income, access to health care and geographic area. Based on this study they came up with “8” Americas.

“America One,” comprised of about 10 million Asians, has an average life expectancy of 85. “America Two,” consists of approximately 3½ million low-income whites who live predominantly in the Dakotas, Iowa, Montana, Minnesota and Nebraska. This lower than normal income group lives an average of 79 years and demonstrates the best level of health among whites. The majority of the population, about 214 million, has a life expectancy of 78 and makes up “America Three” while “America Four” consists of poor whites in Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley whose life expectancy is 75. “America Five, or Western Native Americans, live to an average of 73 as do “American Six” which is categorized as black-middle America. Making up “America Seven and Eight,” both with a life expectancy of 71, are low-income Southern rural blacks and high-risk urban blacks.

Another look at longevity, this time on a global level, is one calculated by the World Health Organization called HALEs (Healthy Life Expectancy). This is the average number of years a newborn can expect to live in “full health.” It’s a complicated calculation made by demographers and statisticians to adjust life expectancy to reflect how much of that time will be spent in poor health. Consider these contrasting numbers: a male in Afghanistan has a HALE of 35 years, but a life expectancy of 42 years while a male in the United States has a HALE of 67 years and a life expectancy of 75. Similar contrasts exist for females. A female in Afghanistan has a HALE of 36 with a life expectancy of 42 while a female in the United States has a HALE of 71 with a life expectancy of 80.

A more general overview is provided by the Center of Disease Control for Health Statistics. Their computations show that a child born in the United States in 2005 can expect to live 77.9 years, up from 77.8 in 2004 and continuing a rise dating back decades. U.S. life expectancy was 75.8 years in 1995 and 69.6 years in 1955.

The United States, a country of 300 million people, ranks 42nd in the world in life expectancy. One basic conclusion that can be drawn from all these studies is that we are living longer and need to make appropriate provisions for that prolonged existence. Long term care health insurance is one option to consider in preparing for one’s future.

Gerri Tyber
Operations Manager, Barton Home Care

When my wife & I reach the point in our lives that we need assistance in getting through the day, we will receive that assistance in our home. Home is where our hearts are. Home is where our memories were created. We don’t want to leave it.

We are not wealthy people and I do know that professional home care ranges from about $18-$22 per hour in Metro-Denver. So how is it going to happen? The care won’t be provided by our children. They have their own lives to lead. (Just between you and me, our children would take care of us, but they really won’t want to…and we really won’t want them to.) Besides, we do want our kids to come by, when they can, to spend some enjoyable hours together…not to bathe us or do other unpleasant “grunt work.”

Where will the money come from to pay for all this care? It won’t be from Medicare or Medicaid (we will never qualify for Medicaid and Medicare’s home care services are so limited as to be not worth considering in our planning).

In 2001 we purchased a good comprehensive long term care insurance policy that will pay for home care, has a lifetime benefit period, and inflation protection to increase the benefits to keep up with increasing costs of care. If you prefer spending as much time in your home as possible, you, too, should ask for a long term care quote from an insurance agent offering long term care insurance. That way you can prepare for your twilight years when you still have the time.

Full disclosure:
I am an insurance broker specializing in long term care and long term care insurance. I bought the stuff myself or I wouldn’t have the strong belief that I do about its value to my clients.

Ray Smith, CLU, CLTC, CSA
The Long Term Care Specialist
303-300-4337
www.raysmithltc.com
raysmith@finsvcs.com