Advice on best long-term health care providers?

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dseery
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2016 7:24 pm

Advice on best long-term health care providers?

Post by dseery »

Hi All,

Years back, I was told at my mid-career retirement planning, that 54 or 55 years old was a good time to purchase long term health care coverage.

I'm 54 now, so I guess it is time to start researching. I heard it's important to choose carefully to make sure the provider has reasonable premiums and that the company will be solvent when you need them.

This has been such a great place for retirement investing advice, I thought you could also help with this question. Thanks in advance for your advice.
Following the leaders who weathered the storms...

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cswift01
Posts: 819
Joined: Thu Dec 08, 2016 10:46 am

Re: Advice on best long-term health care providers?

Post by cswift01 »

dseery wrote:Hi All,

Years back, I was told at my mid-career retirement planning, that 54 or 55 years old was a good time to purchase long term health care coverage.

I'm 54 now, so I guess it is time to start researching. I heard it's important to choose carefully to make sure the provider has reasonable premiums and that the company will be solvent when you need them.

This has been such a great place for retirement investing advice, I thought you could also help with this question. Thanks in advance for your advice.


I think its a good plan. I'm also considering changing my healthcare back to a normal plan in addition to considering long-term health insurance. I just changed mine to a HDHP so I can invest through those means as well.

Best,

Me

crondanet5
Posts: 4330
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:51 pm

Re: Advice on best long-term health care providers?

Post by crondanet5 »

Is there anything you can do to improve your health status? Smoke? Drink? Drugs? I ask those questions because when I ended up in the hospital I quickly realized I needed to sell my salvageable health situation to the hospital medical staff. They got more interested in me as I told them my healthcare practices. It really hit home when my hospital roommate revealed to a infectious diseases doctor he used drugs and his hand was swollen because he hit the guy behind the steering wheel in his car with his fist and came away with a tooth imbedded in his knuckle. Heavy swelling and no medical insurance. The point of this is nobody wants to wind up in a long term health care situation but if you do the bigger your policy the better the facility you get into. Some policies permit you to share benefits with your spouse.

But assess the condition of your health. Do anything you can do to improve it before undergoing their medical examination.

adm_m
Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2017 7:54 am

Re: Advice on best long-term health care providers?

Post by adm_m »

Traditional long-term care has the inevitable premium increases. Increases to the point that are scary. I know of one option that I hope is around when I am a little older that doesn't increase premiums and is a hybrid LTC/Life Insurance/disabilty type of policy. Premiums never change but it is expensive. Lincoln Financial offers it and it is called Money Guard. Look into that, because as people continue to live longer, and with healthcare expenses rising, this option seems ideal. Of course the only things that buy it are money and good health.
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evilanne
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Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 6:52 pm

Re: Advice on best long-term health care providers?

Post by evilanne »

dseery,
I’m currently slightly younger than you. Check out https://www.ltcfeds.com/ltcWeb/do/asses ... atecalcOut Selecting each of the basic plans results in $1,491-$4,238 per year for me with maximum lifetime benefit of $109K to $365K. After playing with the different options the summary for higher ($365K) to unlimited lifetime benefit, the recommended customized plans, ranged from ~$3,200 to $6,300 annually :shock:

Take a good look at the Self Funding Tool, which is basically what I plan to do by gradually converting part of my traditional TSP balance to Roth IRA over time. That way the money will grow at higher rate and will be available later if and when you need it; it isn’t subject to RMDs and the money will go to your beneficiaries if you don’t need it.

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dseery
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2016 7:24 pm

Re: Advice on best long-term health care providers?

Post by dseery »

thanks Evilanne!
Following the leaders who weathered the storms...

crondanet5
Posts: 4330
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:51 pm

Re: Advice on best long-term health care providers?

Post by crondanet5 »

evilanne does your Account Balance support a $120,000 a year nursing home expense?

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evilanne
Posts: 2067
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 6:52 pm

Re: Advice on best long-term health care providers?

Post by evilanne »

crondanet5 wrote:evilanne does your Account Balance support a $120,000 a year nursing home expense?

crondanet,

It should in another 30 years when I may possible need it.

One of the tools tells you current cost for your location, I looked up both San Antonio, TX & Cheyenne, WY (most likely residence in retirement)
2 Year(s) home health care $62,400 $71,760
1 Year(s) assisted living $34,008 $46,176
2 Year(s) nursing home $107,310 $175,930
Total for all LTC services $203,718 $293,866

If I take $200K-300K of my retirement investments and earmark for conversion to Roth, I should be in pretty good shape.

My mother currently has LT Care policy, which is currently close to $4K per year. The annual cost has increased significantly since she got it over 15 years ago and when they update the premium they always give her the option to reduce coverage to reduce the premium although the salesman stated at the time that it wouldn't increase more than 5% per year :roll: The only good thing about it is that it is tax deductible if you can itemize and if your medical expenses are more than 7.5% or 10% of your AGI (depending on your age)

crondanet5
Posts: 4330
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:51 pm

Re: Advice on best long-term health care providers?

Post by crondanet5 »

My agent recommended reducing annual increase and keeping premium steady. Annual cost is $2500.

skiehawk11
Posts: 2116
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 2:32 pm

Re: Advice on best long-term health care providers?

Post by skiehawk11 »

I'm young enough thankfully to where long term care insurance is not needed. For the amount of money I would put towards LTC insurance over the next 30 years, I could earmark to my TSP, Roth or taxable accounts and be able to withdraw any LTC costs from the dividends.

My biggest fear are rate hikes which just happened last year. It was 126% plus rate hike for federal long term care. That's insane!

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