First and foremost, there is no way to guarantee that you can stay home as you age. Often, our health dictates whether or not we are safe at home or must go to a nursing home; however, there are ways to ensure that you can stay in your home much longer than others. The simple answer is that a long-term care policy with a rider for in-home care will at least provide funds to keep you in your home as long as possible.
I always hear push-back that long-term care insurance is expensive, and in many cases, if you don’t use it, you lose it. Since approximately 2009, Pennsylvania has become a part of a partnership care plan. Essentially, say you have $200,000 of long-term care insurance that pays out, the state will allow you to exempt an additional $200,000 of assets at the time that you enter a nursing home, and still qualify for Medicaid. When the plan first came out, the concern was that the state would take over long-term care insurance, but so far that has not occurred. I believe the reason is that these are still traditional long-term care policies that, if you don’t use them during your lifetime, you lose their value at your death. However, more recently, long-term care insurance companies have come out with a hybrid policy, a life insurance policy with a rider for long-term care insurance. The main reason that I like long-term care policies, specifically the ones that have riders to provide care in the home or in the personal care home, is because more and more people want to live at home as they age until they die.
In all of my years of practice, no one has ever told me that they want to go into a nursing home. I often hear that they want to stay home, or they want to stay in a personal care home, but unfortunately, it is too expensive, or the assets will become completely depleted. Although I understand that long-term care insurance or a long-term care hybrid policy may seem expensive now, trust me, the peace of mind that it will provide later when you or a loved one wants and is able, to stay home or go to a personal care home, the money spent on the policy which allows you to do so is small compared to the out-of-pocket cost of that care, and, at least as importantly, your peace of mind.
Although we are fortunate in the state of Pennsylvania to be able to assist people in crisis, we are not as easily able to help people stay in their homes or personal care homes. Do yourself and your family a favor, and if at all possible secure your long-term care insurance now for peace of mind later; the earlier, the better.
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