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| Adventures of a Middle-Aged Editor |
GH Editor Michael Egan takes a terrifying trip
to Las Vegas. |
| New Hope for Alzheimer’s Sufferers |
| GH Medical Reporters discuss a series of dramatic breakthroughs. |
| GH Survey Winners |
| You could be the lucky recipient of a gift certificate. |
| Are You Older Than Your Boss? |
| Here are eleven coping strategies for dealing with a younger manager. |
| The Amusement Park |
| A new cartoon feature by Michael Egan. |
| A Whiskey a Day Keeps the Doctor Away |
| Moderate alcohol consumption is good for you! |
| Brother Noland Sings |
| Cover story features one of the Islands’ most popular musicians. |
| Heart Check |
| The American Heart Association offers women good advice. |
DEPARTMENT:
By Percy Ihara
Recently I started looking into long-term care insurance (LTCI) since I am known as middle-aged and have friends taking care of their parents. Having a number of financial professionals as friends I started to ask about purchasing LTCI for myself. I quickly learned that this was no easy task. Although I am not a financial advisor, here’s what I learned. But note: these are just general guidelines. I strongly recommend that you speak to at least two long-term care insurance agents or a financial advisor.
I don’t sell LTCI; however, I think everyone should look into how they plan to pay for long-term care. Can you afford this type of insurance and do you qualify?
You may also want to contact the local chapters of the Financial Planners Association of Hawaii (www.fpahawaii.org) or the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (www. naifanet.com/honolulu).
First you will need to understand what LTCI is. According to recent statistics at least 50% of those over 65 years of age will require some form of long-term care. A very informative website is www.longtermcare.gov, which describes LT care as a variety of services and supports to meet health or personal care needs over an extended period of time. Most LT care is non-skilled, performing “Activities of Daily Living” (ADLs), such as bathing, dressing, using the toilet, transferring (to or from bed or chair), caring for incontinence, and eating. The goal of LT care services is to help you maximize your independence and functioning at a time when you are unable to be fully independent.
So now you know what long-term care is, and if you are like me that have friends taking care of their parents you will know how challenging it can be. So you want to start planning ahead by looking in your community for various services, their costs, financing options and private versus public services. Planning for long-term care will assist you and your family ahead of time in the event something happens suddenly, so be proactive because most people wait until something happens. In my experience, more people in Hawaii spend more time planning a trip to Las Vegas then planning for their LTC needs. Planning will hopefully reduce emotional stress and family infighting, let alone a financial burden on the family.
Finally, for many people, one of the most important advantages of planning ahead is to ensure greater independence. Your choices for receiving care outside of a facility and being able to stay at home or receive services in the community for as long as possible are greater if you have planned ahead.
LTCI is insurance that will pay for your long-term care needs in your own home or nursing facility. Like any type of insurance there are premiums associated with the benefit. The premiums go up the older you are since you are likely to need this insurance as you age, so buy it when you are younger. The old saying ‘you get what you pay for’ is very true with LTCI. The insurance premium is directly related to the daily cost of care the policy will pay for, your health qualifications and age.
The average cost of LT care in Hawaii, according to the AARP, is $225 a day This will go up over time as Hawaii experiences a shortage of nursing home beds and nurse’s aids who actually handle the care of the patient. So depending on your situation you will have to work with your financial advisor to determine how much coverage you can afford or want per day, and how many years you think you will need it. Lastly, make sure your policy has a compounded inflation factor that increases your monthly benefit throughout the years. There are individual plans and joint plans for husbands and wives to choose from.
If and when you eventually need care in a nursing facility or your home, you will no longer have to pay the LTCI premiums.
Finally, look at long-term care insurance in the same way as car insurance. On the other hand, what are your chances of getting into a car accident? Maybe 1 in 10,000.
We are also required to have homeowner’s insurance on our houses, but the chance of them burning down are, let’s say, 1 in 50,000.
Of course, we don’t know if we’ll ever use our long-term care insurance, yet the chance of needing some form of LTC is over 50 percent. Let me put it another way: the cost of being in a nursing home for one year in Hawaii is more than four years of college tuition! We have the longest average life span, the highest cost of long-term care and—five times above the national average—more families caring for loved ones.
Percy Ihara is the host of Today’s Kupuna, a weekly television series for seniors and their families. It airs every Wednesday night at 7 pm on Olelo’s channel 52.