Pondering long-term care insurance
How does long-term care insurance give you the security you desire? If you are disabled by illness or injury, your will have different options for your care, with different price tags. For example –

1) bringing in a home health aide,
2) going to an adult day care program,
3) entering an assisted living facility, or
4) going into a nursing home in either a semi-private or private room. In the US the cost of these vary from state to state.
Each year the Genworth Insurance Company compiles a Cost-of-Care Survey that shows the cost in cities and regions across the U.S. As examples, here are the 2018 median costs of the various levels of care, first for the whole country, then for four representative locations: 
Choosing how much and how long
Most LTCI policies are “comprehensive ,” meaning that they will cover any of the different levels of care. You will have to decide how much care you want to provide for yourself and how long you might need care. You might buy a policy with a benefit of $4,500 per month paid for five years. You might do this because you would prefer to be cared for in your home if you are disabled, and this will cover home health care in most areas of the country.
You might choose this benefit level and term even though you know it will not be enough to cover nursing care, which in your area costs about $7,700 per month, thinking that if you ever need nursing care you will supplement your monthly $4,500 benefit with other assets to cover the additional cost.
Statistics show that the average stay in a nursing home is 892 days or about 2½between two and three years. You will want to look at lifespan and illness patterns in your family and make an informed guess as to how long you will want the term for your LTCI coverage to be.


ADLs—qualifying for your benefit
It is important to note how a policy holder qualifies for the long-term care benefit. You have to be unable to perform for yourself at least two of the six activities of daily living (ADLs). They are: eating, •bathing, •dressing, •toileting, •transferring (able to get in and out of bed or a chair without help), and •maintaining continence. If a doctor certifies that you cannot do at least two of these, you qualify for the LTCI benefits.
Benefit pool

When you cannot perform at least two of these six ADLs and your policy is activated, you begin to draw on something called your “benefit pool .” This is created when you initiate your policy. The company designates a pool of money by multiplying the monthly rate at that time by the number of months the policy covers. This pool then continues to grow by the inflation factor. If you are disabled today and your benefit level is $7,700 per month for five years, your benefit pool will have grown to $462,000 ($7,770 x 60 months).
This means you will have that amount of money to spend on your long-term care. Because your policy is comprehensive, you will be able to use your benefit pool to pay for your care at the level you need. If, for instanceexample, you are in a nursing home, you will use up your benefit pool in 5five years at the rate of $7,700 per month., b But if in-home care is enough for you, at the rate of, for exampleinstance, about $4,500 per month, your benefit pool will last for about 103 months or eight8 years and five5 months.
If, on the other hand, your benefit level is $4,500 per month for five years, your benefit pool will have grown to $270,000. This will be enough for five years of home healthcare but will cover only part of your monthly nursing home costs. , or iIf you use it to pay the full monthly nursing care costs, it will last for only about 35 months.
Why LTCI

LTCI is not just for the end-of-life years. Some people begin it during their prime working years because it guarantees care in case of work injury or sudden debilitating illness. Whether you need your LTCI early in your life or near its end, your care will be paid for up to the amount in your benefit pool. This will give you some protection against exhausting your resources or those of your family. Because LTCI is expensive insurance, you will want to think carefully, consider all these factors, and buy the policy that best fits your needs and your life expectancy. You will also want to be sure to use the services of an experienced and qualified LTCI specialist.
If you have questions or want to consider a policy, contact Randy Yoder, Long-Term Care Specialist, at 847-849-0205.