Long Term Care Planning Checklist: 3 Expensive Mistakes People Make

Using this long term care planning checklist can help many older Americans face reality:

Knee-deep in long term care expenses that they need to drain their savings and assets just to make up for the costs.

Another unfortunate reality is that many of the younger baby boomers following their footsteps still have no retirement savings today. With 10,000 baby boomers supposedly retiring each day, the country is headed for a crisis if we do not try to fix this now.

Yes, talking about long-term care needs is not a forte of the baby boomer generation. Instead of discussing long term care costs and services, many from their age group would rather tiptoe around the issue until it is too late.

However, proactive planning is the way to go. Let’s take active measures in securing our future by identifying the expensive mistakes that we need to fix now.

1.    Delaying coverage

Long term care insurance provides a way for older adults to fund expensive long term care services. And typically, they receive more coverage care than the premiums that they pay. However, only a handful of retirees have decided to purchase a policy on time.

Waiting to purchase long term care insurance until you are older can have two outcomes:

You end up with higher premiums that you may have to give up some of the features.

You get disqualified for coverage because of new health conditions.

When nursing home expenses could reach $92,378 a year and assisted living facilities could cost $43,539, many baby boomers can surely use the security and assurance that policies provide.

To get started in securing a policy, feel free to refer to ALTCP long term care assessment tool. Through a set of question, baby boomers get to have a step-by-step guide to planning for long term care.

2.    Thinking Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to cover the expenses

Here’s the real situation:

Medicare will not finance most of the long term care expenses; even though 4 out of 10 Americans age 40 and older mistakenly expect so. Also, Medicaid enforces a strict income limit that may require people to spend down their assets just to qualify.

On top of that, Social Security benefits—the program largely relied on to finance retirement— only averaged $1,404. This barely covers the basic expenses of many Americans.

The reality is this:

Being an American has become expensive, and being complacent about it will only lead to more dollars lost.

3.    Relying on family members to provide the care

In a previous blog post, we discussed how senior care affects an adult child’s life. By relying on your children to provide the care that you need or pay for the care services you require, you put them at risk of losing their financial stability.

The number of hours dedicated to providing care increases with the age of the caregiver. Instead of working and building retirement income, family members spend more time providing care for their loved ones.

However, it gets worse:

The care responsibilities can be too exhausting that adult children may end up needing the long-term care as well because of health conditions that resulted from the care.

However, they are now left with little financial resources to pay for their own care. This then forces them to rely on their children for support. It creates a cycle that may be too difficult to break.

Long term care planning may be difficult, but choosing not to do so could lead to even more challenges. Take time to prepare now by taking into considerating this checklist on long term care planning because these care needs may be just around the corner.

by Samantha Stein | Association for Long Term Care Planning