This March 27, 2011 Florida Times-Union article by Roger Bull titled “Many Struggling Financially to provide care for elderly family members” poignantly describes the hardships that middle-class families endure when their needful parent does not own long-term care insurance (LTCi) yet needs long-term care.
This article does mention using long-term care insurance to successfully fund long-term care needs and avoid the type of hardship his article describes. Unfortunately, Mr. Bull seems subject to the same lack of information about LTCi that the general public has. He spends the majority of his article describing the hardship of his people needing care, but he devotes only a minor amount of space to LTCi protection. He describes the $122/month LTCi premium as being high but fails to mention the many thousands of dollars paid out if LTC is needed. In another example, he states LTCi will pay for a limited amount of care as if this were a bad thing. LTCi premiums are based on what you need and what you can afford. No LTCi policy, no insurance policy in fact, pays for all expenses. All are limited. It is not necessary to have an insurance policy that pays for all costs. As long as an LTCi policy is paying enough for you to 1) access the care you choose, when you need it and 2) conserve your wealth, even if you have to cover some of the cost of care. Yes, LTCi is limited, and it can also benefit families significantly.
I struggle to educate the uninformed public and the uninformed mainstream media every day! It’s very unfortunate that so many myths about LTCi continue.
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