Long-term care insurance, also called nursing home insurance, has become an increasingly burning issue over the past decade. Insurance companies promote this type of insurance as an ideal way to save money and cover all the individual costs in the long run, but they turn out to be quite the opposite, considering that they cover only a small percentage of the medical expenses one might have, all the while having a considerable amount of limitations in their offers.
The main argument that the insurance companies use to point out the benefits of having this sort of insurance is that one is likely to spend a lot of years in a nursing facility and the costs of such a stay would most likely force them to pour all their money into such an institution and eventually maybe even end up in the street. This may be appealing to people with fairly large incomes, who could use this type of insurance as a safety net, rather than a necessity. However, regular middle-class people should think about this from a different perspective. The actual possibilities of staying in a nursing home for very long is really slim and the protection offered by Medicaid laws does not leave the option for one to stay without a place to live, therefore these expenses turn out to be quite the opposite of an investment.
As a matter of fact, only 10 percent of people stay in a nursing facility for three years, while it is most likely that they stay will be about six months long.
Nevertheless, long-term care insurance is advertised in a very beneficial way, but while there may a big talk, it does not exactly deliver. Even if we ignore the fact that only a small amount of people stays in a nursing facility for a long time, the fact shouldn’t ignore that the promises of insurance companies are not exactly kept. The majority of people who bought long-term care insurance were eventually obliged to cover the expenses of their stay in a residential facility with their own money, since they either weren’t paid once they entered a facility, or the money they received didn’t actually cover the cost of their care.
Although long-term care insurance is generally considered a bad investment, due to negative media coverage, the insurance companies were put under pressure to revise and clarify their offers, so that people would have greater benefits, as well as a more specific idea of what they are getting. The main conclusion is that this is not an ideal solution, but it is not to be thrown away lightly as well, since it might be indeed benefit some people. The most important thing is that for one it would not be the base of his or her opinion on the majority of claims, but to consider it for their individual situation.
Your thoughts on this
Loading...