Long-term care is a variety of services and supports to meet health or personal care needs over an extended period of time. Most long-term care is non-skilled personal care assistance, such as help performing everyday Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), which are:
- Bathing
- Dressing
- Using the toilet
- Transferring (to or from bed or chair)
- Caring for incontinence
The goal of long-term care services is to help you maximize your independence and functioning at a time when you are unable to be fully independent.
Without LTC insurance, your retirement savings are at risk. Medicaid health care choices are dwindling by the day, along with growing nursing staff shortages, all diminishing the quality of care Medicaid already struggles to provide. As for your finances, you must exhaust your resources to qualify. Then what? Many nursing home patients recover. According to an AARP Study on Nursing Homes the average nursing home stay is 2.5 years. After that, the Medicaid recipient heads home … often to an empty bank account.
For these reasons and more, millions of seniors nationwide have taken advantage of the invaluable qualities of LTC insurance.
Who Needs Long-Term Care?
Long-term care is needed when you have a chronic illness or disability that causes you to need assistance with Activities of Daily Living. Your illness or disability could include a problem with memory loss, confusion, or disorientation. (This is called Cognitive Impairment and can result from conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.)
This year, about 9 million Americans over the age of 65 will need long-term care services. By 2020, that number will increase to 12 million. While most people who need long-term care are age 65 or older, a person can need long-term care services at any age. Forty (40) percent of people currently receiving long-term care are adults 18 to 64 years old.