Nursing Home Coverage

This type of insurance is the most difficult type for almost everyone to even talk about let alone buy. Practically everybody will tell me “It won’t happen to me”. However the reality of it is nearly 50% of people reaching the age of 65 will need some sort of care in a skilled nursing facility sometime in their life. This is not saying the nursing home is the final address for that 50% before they die, it means that nearly 50% of all people 65 or older will need some sort of care sometime in their lifetime.

The facts also bear out that the average length of time spent in a care center is going to be for rehabilitation and will be for a period of time that is less than one year. Another fact is Medicare only pays for less than 10% of all skilled nursing homes costs. Who pays the rest you might ask? Personal funds are used up first before Medicaid or Welfare will step in.

You can protect your “Nest Egg”, retirement accounts and home from these costs by purchasing coverage which will cover up to one year for very a reasonable cost. If someone is under age 65 this type of protection can be as low as approximately $ 35 or so per month. This type of coverage is called “Short term Care or Rehab”. Since we know from statistics, almost 85% of nursing home admissions last less than a year it makes good financial sense to insure yourself from this kind of expense for around $1 a day.

We now have some companies that will combine the advantages of a fixed annuity with additional benefits to pay for stays in a long term care facility. How this works is when someone opens up an annuity the company will after one year provide and amount up to three times higher than the amount put into the annuity for payments towards the costs of long term care. In effect what this has done is tripled the value of your money! This new product is very exciting and has enabled many people to have coverage who otherwise may not have in the past.

Coverage is also available for Long term stays in nursing homes. These plans also will pay for expenses in many kinds of facilities such as Assisted Living and Alzheimer Centers. Medicare will not cover anything in these two places. These plans are available to anyone as long as they qualify and can be much more pricy.