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| Kersten and Associates 900 Fort Street Mall, Suite 400, Honolulu Hawaii 96813 Phone (808)531-3137 Fax (808)261-2626 kerstenandassociates@live.com |
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The need for Long Term Care Insurance is a fact of life. We are living longer, especially those of the "baby boomer" generation. Women are living longer than men. Single men need care more than married men. Long Term Care refers to the need for a wide-range of health care and personal services that you may need as you age due to a mental or physical incapacity.
These services may be needed while in your home, or in an outside facility designed to provide you with the care and services needed to maintain your well-being. Long Term Care Insurance is available to protect you from the catastrophic debt which a chronic illness or infirmity may generate. It includes the need for home health aides, physical and speech therapists, adult day care, hospice, assisted living and nursing home services. It may include such services as assistance in preparing meals, housekeeping, bathing, dressing, mobility, eating, toileting, and the performance of "normal" cognitive behaviors.
The objective of Long Term Care insurance is to cover the costs incurred to provide you with the most suitable services and benefits you may need during any extended period of illness or disability within the scope of the LTC contracts.
The average stay is now almost 3 years. The national estimate of LTC nursing home services in Hawaii has risen from $127 a day in 1999 to $238 a day in 2005. We all know that medical costs are not decreasing, that the range of benefits provided by Medicare and Medicaid are subject to change. What are our options to protect our assets and to provide an ongoing quality level of care? Self-Insure? Use up your precious asset base? Reverse Mortgage? Rely on the good will and charity of family and friends?
Would you rather spend $200 a day or $5.00 a day, $72,000 a year or $1800 a year, to cover the cost of professional care in your home or a skilled facility? Paying the actual cost from your assets or paying for quality insurance to cover the expense while protecting the bulk of your assets?
The key to quality long term living is planning now. We can help you design an affordable program which will help protect you and your family from the overwhelming financial and emotional drain which may result from expensive and extended long-term care.
