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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity  |
Yeah, that was my problem with it.
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| Pinta & the Santa Maria Has Achieved Nirvana  |
One option I haven't seen here (or have missed) is the option of purchasing long-term health care insurance. You have to be generally healthy in the first place, and the younger the better. You also need a significant nest egg of retirement that you don't anticipate needing to tap into. But for those of you where that might apply, the general idea in many of them is that if you are approved, you give the insurance company a large chunk of money (like $100K or so). If you need long-term care for any reason, the insurance company pays out. If you don't need it, the $100K is returned to your estate (undoubtedly less some fees). It's not ideal as it is really for a niche market, but if it fits you it might be a great option. | |||
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| czarina Has Achieved Nirvana  |
long term care insurance doesn't make sense for most people. you have to buy it in your 50s, and you have to be certain you will be able to keep paying the premiums until you need long-term care, and the premiums do go up a lot as you age. i looked into it pretty thoroughly when i turned 50 and it just didn't pencil out.
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Minor Deity |
I looked into it too, and when you figure the cost outlay against the amount of time the average person uses it (i.e., life expectancy) it REALLY doesn't pay the (average) consumer. In fact, some policies (quite a few, I think) only pay for a set number of years anyhow and then even the centenarians lose out. The insurers sure don't have a problem making a profit! I think they're relying on the panic factor among the aging population, much promoted by them. If one has the money to pay the premiums for the expectable period, you're way ahead self-insuring. And if you can't afford that (including how long you live) well, it's no worse than it would have been with paid insurance.
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
In fairness, any insurance product has to "not pencil out" for the *average* consumer else the company goes bust and screws all the people still depending on it. That doesn't *per se* mean it's a bad deal for any particular customer. My maternal grandfather was in an assisted living home for almost exactly 5 years - and his long term care insurance covered 5 years. He died a week before it ran out. I've thought about the original topic a great deal. Not as regards myself (my girlfriend is a decade younger than me and I have a son and poor life expectancy and financial security etc etc). But it's a big problem for society. My oldest sister is childless, though she has a niece and a nephew (boy-nyc).
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
My mom had a LTC policy for a couple of years and then dropped it. Good decision on her part. She did better banking the premium and investing it herself. So many companies have gone out of the LTC insurance biz.
I think this is the model that NIna's talking about.
https://www.aarp.org/caregivin...re-insurance-fd.html
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
There are good places for seniors to live, but there are also a significant problems facing the industry. https://www.usatoday.com/in-de...-reforms/8318780001/ As good as the place where my Mom lived was, I saw them fighting rising costs and difficulty in finding qualified staff. Staff were assigned more residents to care for; the quality of care was slowly chipped away. That was four or five years ago; I can only imagine the challenges they face.
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Minor Deity |
I’m not a kin-less senior. I’m more of a “far-kin” senior? My closest offspring is more than 500 miles away, and my oldest is in Europe. The issue I think of is that I don’t know anybody in the state of Nevada that I’m close enough to to give a house key to. I think of needing to transition to a more communal living environment one of these days, but also want to put it off as long as possible. | |||
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| czarina Has Achieved Nirvana |
don't you have neighbors? why not host a potluck for the neighbors and get to know some of them. We could not manage without ours.
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| Pinta & the Santa Maria Has Achieved Nirvana |
We're talking about different plans. Mr. Nina enrolled in his mid 60s. It's a flat rate (that's why you need the chunk of money up front). There are no premiums. You just pay up, with the benefit that if you don't use the benefit, the money returns to your estate. Edit: I see wtg added some info up above. | |||
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| Minor Deity |
From wtg's cited article (the title) "Many nursing homes are poorly staffed. How do they get away with it?" Perhaps even more to the point, how do they get away with charging the astronomical prices they do? 
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