Are you familiar with long-term care planning? If you are not, you are not alone. There are a surprising number of Americans who do not know what long-term care is. Most everyone is familiar with acute care, or addressing an immediate injury or illness, and something that you would regularly see your doctor about, but again, most people are not familiar with long-term care. Unfortunately, long-term care, or addressing the needs of an aging individual, is rarely discussed until it is a necessity, and often then it is too late to plan well and that is the reason everyone needs to plan early for long-term care.
Long-term care focuses on the needs of an aging person. The senior is often advanced in age and has needs that cannot be met independently anymore. The senior requires assistance from another person. Now this assistance can take different forms. For example, it might include:
- Housekeeping chores,
- Keeping someone company,
- Managing medication,
- Bathing or walking,
- Transportation,
- Meal preparation, or
- Paying bills and financial management.
The list above may seem broad but that just reveals the nature of long-term care. The needs are as varied as the individuals are who need the care.
Regrettably, there are times when long-term care is a necessity after an injury or serious and advancing illness. For example, if a senior were to suffer a stroke there could be long-term consequences impacting the senior both cognitively and physically. These consequences may result in the need for a caregiver who could assist the senior in his or her day-to-day tasks either on a short term basis, during the phases of recovery, or on a long-term basis.
If you are planning for the Medicare system to provide a long-term care solution, it will not happen. Presently Medicare is primarily set up to take care of acute treatment for illnesses and hospital care. After the stay in a hospital there is very little coverage to help a senior who may have more significant long-term care needs. The long-term care setting could be in a number of different places, such as the senior’s home, assisted living facility, or skilled nursing facility; seniors would then have a different type of care called custodial care. When it comes to custodial care, there are a limited number of days Medicare will assist in the payment for this type of care.
Seniors need to know and plan early because the monthly and daily costs for long-term care are high. Many families today do not have the financial resources set aside to pay for the cost of long-term care on top of their regular bills and obligations. While there is long-term care insurance available, the majority of Americans have not invested in it at a time when they could qualify for the benefits. To learn more about the cost of care in our state, you can click this link to the Genworth Cost of Care Survey to identify the costs for home-based assisted living, or skilled nursing home care.
So how do seniors or their family members afford long-term care when it is needed then? There are government benefit programs such as Medicaid and the Veterans Affairs pension program designed to help shoulder the high monthly cost of long-term care. These programs are, however, based not only on health care needs but on eligibility standards for income and assets. There are strategies available to help the person in need of long-term care qualify to receive these benefits but the majority of the strategies are available only when you plan early
We know this article may raise more questions than answers. At the end of the day, long-term care planning is not just for you. Instead, it is for the ones you love most. If we can answer any questions for you on putting this estate planning in place, please do not hesitate to let us know. For more information, please reach out to our office and schedule a time to meet.