Long term care insurance

jecornel said:

Yes, I am a pathetic wage slave.

Sad

Fishpo31 said:

MikeDamone said:

Fishpo31 said:

My parents had it, and my dad was in a nursing home for a little over a year, at about $4500 per month (and that wasn't a private room). Even with that, I had to cut a check for $14,000 for an injection that kept him off of dialysis that conveniently wasn't covered in his policy. Got the bill two days after he passed...

The exhausting of personal finances angle is pretty dicey, since you could (at the time) only gift $10K per year, IDK what it is now, or if it has changed. "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later"...

So pops got about ~$60k in benefits. What were his premiums and for how long? If you cut the check for $14k it sounds like he didn’t have any assets. The purpose of insurance is to protect against financial loss. What was he insuring?

If I recall, he told me he was paying between $400 - 500 a month. The injection was from a list of drugs / procedures not covered on his health insurance. They would have covered dialysis, I found out later. He had assets, that was what he was trying to (and did) protect. I was brought into the loop late, and he had all of it planned out. I vaguely remember him mentioning it about 15 years or so before he went in, but didn't pay too much attention to the details, because I was busy living the "sporting life"...

But he paid $400-$500 a month to protect what exactly? Could he not come up with $50k a year? Most people who need LTC go in for less than 18 months. 24 tops. So $6k a year in premiums to avoid paying maybe $100k seems like a bad idea. Did h even break even on the deal? Remember, insurance companies sell insurance to make money.

greenblood said:

MikeDamone said:

Fishpo31 said:

MikeDamone said:

Fishpo31 said:

My parents had it, and my dad was in a nursing home for a little over a year, at about $4500 per month (and that wasn't a private room). Even with that, I had to cut a check for $14,000 for an injection that kept him off of dialysis that conveniently wasn't covered in his policy. Got the bill two days after he passed...

The exhausting of personal finances angle is pretty dicey, since you could (at the time) only gift $10K per year, IDK what it is now, or if it has changed. "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later"...

So pops got about ~$60k in benefits. What were his premiums and for how long? If you cut the check for $14k it sounds like he didn’t have any assets. The purpose of insurance is to protect against financial loss. What was he insuring?

If I recall, he told me he was paying between $400 - 500 a month. The injection was from a list of drugs / procedures not covered on his health insurance. They would have covered dialysis, I found out later. He had assets, that was what he was trying to (and did) protect. I was brought into the loop late, and he had all of it planned out. I vaguely remember him mentioning it about 15 years or so before he went in, but didn't pay too much attention to the details, because I was busy living the "sporting life"...

But he paid $400-$500 a month to protect what exactly? Could he not come up with $50k a year? Most people who need LTC go in for less than 18 months. 24 tops. So $6k a year in premiums to avoid paying maybe $100k seems like a bad idea. Did h even break even on the deal? Remember, insurance companies sell insurance to make money.

But this requires people to be disciplined with their money, which most aren't. I agree with you though. It would be nice to have a long term policy that at least has an interest accruing cash value benefit. But I don't know of any of those.

No really. If you have no money, you get care for free. If you’re net worth is $75k and you blow it the last year of your life paying for a nursing home, who cares? You didn’t spend $75k on premiums the past 15 years. And if you are disciplined and have a couple million in the bank, so what if you have to pay $75k to a nursing home the last year of your life? Which chances are you won’t don’t have to do.

Take my grandparents. None were wealthy. None had LTC. Grandpa’s both died at home in a day. One a masssive stoke, the other a pulmonary embolism. No warning, just gone. Grandmas live for a long time after. One went into a nursing home and died in 6 months. She had about $300k net worth. Nursing home probably coast $30k. And most policies has a 90 day waiting period before they start paying. Grandma 2 lived to be 100. At 95 went into assisted living. LTC doesn’t pay for assisted living. She went into hospice from there, lived 2 weeks.

Like most things though, people are driven by fear and the people selling the insurance know what they are doing.

Cougzz said:

I bought LTC policies for us 12 years ago with a compounding inflation rider and have paid around $52,000. We each have a current total benefit of just under $700,000. I consider that one of the most important purchases I have ever made. I bought based on company financials rather than policy premiums, which turned out well. And there are hybrid LTC policies that are connected to an annuity or life insurance policy that are increasingly popular. We would both be pleased if we croaked on out of here without ever making a claim. Most people have no understanding of the crippling cost of long term care. Plus, we don’t care to become a ward of the state.

People buy whole life too…. They are called suckers.