Most Americans say they want to age in place in their own homes. The secret to doing that according to a new study is to buy a long-term care insurance policy.
In fact, according to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, who published the study, 50.0% of all new long-term care insurance claims opened during 2011 began with the policyholder receiving care at home. Less than one-third of new claims began with the recipient receiving care in a nursing home.
Long-term care policies give people the flexibility and resources to receive long-term care at home, including an assisted living or other senior living option, rather than in a facility. The study also noted that your money goes further with home care because rates for home care have remained fairly flat while semi-private care in a nursing home has risen 4.4%.
Lifesprk has been running a series of articles on long-term care insurance to help people better understand this option. The State of Minnesota and the US Department of Health &Human Services is also trying to encourage more people to plan for their long-term care needs by launching the Own Your Future campaign.
It offers a variety of tools and education to help people plan for long-term care needs before there is a crisis. As the campaign stresses, ‘many people mistakenly believe that Medicare will pay for long-term care costs. It does not. Medicare only pays for long-term care under very limited circumstances.’
We encourage you to learn more!
