How much does Long-Term Care Cost?
The average recipient of long-term care services spends over $250,000 dollars in their lifetime on long-term care.
There are many factors that contribute to the cost of long-term care, but the biggest factor is where you receive your care. Other factors include your age, the level of care required, and the medicine/technology that is used for treatment.
These prices are expected to raise dramatically over the next 30 years, meaning it is more important to start planning today than ever before.
Who Pays for Long-Term Care?
Unless you have long-term care insurance, long-term care costs are paid almost entirely out of your pocket.
Almost every form of health insurance only pays for short-term illnesses, meaning it won’t cover long-term care costs. Some forms of disability insurance will replace your income, but that only applies when you are receiving an income.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many options from the government either. Medicare, the type of insurance held by most retirees, will only cover up to 100 days of long-term care treatment, and even then, there are a lot of conditions applied to what kind of care is covered outside of hospitalization.
Medicaid does offer a form of long-term care coverage, but only when your wealth is at the poverty threshold. These options are quite restrictive and are not offered to everyone. You can learn more about Medicaid’s long-term care options on their website.
Due to the number of restrictions on how you can pay for services, many long-term care recipients have to rely on their families to assist with long-term care. Since it is expensive and time-consuming, this often puts an enormous burden on the family.
Long-term care insurance is the most cost-effective option to afford treatment, but providers usually expect clients to sign up when they’re in their 50’s, meaning you have to plan ahead. Long-term care insurance can be difficult to find, but members of SDPEBA/SDPCOA have access to our heavily discounted plan with Unum.
How much is Long-term Care Insurance?
When it comes to understanding how long-term care insurance rates are calculated, it is best to just run through some hypotheticals.
If a 50-year-old is seeking insurance, they start by deciding how much monthly benefit coverage they want. Let’s say they choose the $5,000 monthly benefit plan with inflation coverage. They would end up paying only $67 per pay period and would end up with over $60,000 of coverage per year should they come to need long term care.
These figures are from Unum's premium calculator. Check it out and see what plan would work best for your budget or click the button below to schedule a call with our long-term care specialist today.
Click here to Schedule a Long-Term Care Call
If you have any other questions check out our support page where you can ask us questions directly. You can also email us at [email protected] or give us a call at: 888-315-8027.