Everybody gets concerned when the price of long-term-care comes up. For example, in 2016 the U.S. Governments Administration on Aging quoted these prices:
- $225 a day or $6,844 per month for semi-private room in a nursing home
- $252 a day or $7,698 per month for a private room in a nursing home
- $119 a day or $3,628 per month for care in an assisted living facility
- $20.50 an hour for a health aide
- $20.00 an hour for homemaker services
- $68 per day for services in an adult day health center
Knowing this it becomes clear that if you were to need assisted living the strain on your finances will be immense. In the same way, buying what’s called a long-term-care-insurance policy to cover a husband and wife, say 57 and 60 years old today will run $4,721 a year, or about $425 a month.*
You can see that either way, the cost adds up quickly. On the other hand, there are products coming onto the market that are offering a cost-effective alternative, but are not replacements for a long term care policy.
Short Term Home Health Care
Short term home health care provides you the opportunity to receive care in your home. In most cases you’ll receive the money directly and pay for your expenses directly.
What Expenses Would a Short-Term-Home-Health-Care Policy Cover
For example, let’s take the same couple, a husband and wife, 57 and 60 years old and see an estimate on a short-term-care policy. One company we are familiar with offers the following:
- $300 a day for skilled nursing, physical therapy, and general nursing care for 360 days
- $80 a day for home health care aid for 60 days
- $600 a year in prescription drug benefit
In other words, if you utilize the total benefit of the example listed here, you can receive a monthly benefit of $11,400 a month for the first two months, and $9,000 a month for the remaining ten months up to the 360-day coverage. The cost? Per month: $30.64*
What Are the Realities of Care for The Aging
The Administration on Aging shows that if a person turns 65 today, they have an almost 70% chance of needing some type of long-term-care services.
The distribution and duration of long-term care services breaks down to:
Care Received at Home
- 69% of people will use some form of assisted care for three years at home
- 59% of people will use one year of unpaid care at home
- 42% of people will use less than one year of paid care at home
- 65% of people will use any form of care at home
Care Received at a Facility
- 35% of people will use nursing facilities for a year
- 13% of people will use assisted living facilities for less than a year
- 35% of people will use any care in a facility for a year
It’s important to note that women tend to need longer forms of care (3.7 years) than men (2.2 years).
Accordingly, you may find that given these statistics a plan that offers you in home care through a short-term-home-health-care plan would help a large percentage of people. Equally important, some short-term-care policies reset their benefit periods under certain circumstances.
Give us a call to find out more details and quotes on short-term-care-products and long-term-care products.
*numbers an estimate based on $7,000 benefit amount, 36-month policy limit, 90-day elimination period with 3% inflation. Not a policy, not a quote, for example purposes only.
*based on typical short term home health care Insurance, husband and wife joint apply, daily benefits maximum. Not a quote, not an issued policy, for example purposes only.
This is not a long term care policy,